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AMERICAN DAIRYING 



A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON 



Dairy Farming and the Management 
of Creameries. 



/ 

/ BY 

H. B.'GURLER, 

DE KALB, ILL. 



U^2^ 






CHICAGO : 

Breeder's Gazette Print. 

1894. 



Copyright, 1894, 

BY THE J. H. SANDERS PUB. CO. 

(All rights reserved.) 



PREFACE 



This book is dedicated to those interested in 
the dairy and creamery business in America. 

The work is undertaken at the urgent re- 
quest of men with whom I have worked in 
this great field. I shall undertake to weave 
into its pages all my experience that I think 
will be of value to the readers of my book. 
My mistakes will be put to the front when I 
think they will be of value in preventing some 
brother dairyman or creamery man from mak- 
ing similar mistakes. 

I expect to use much information secured 
from the work of our experiment stations and 
other reliable sources. A. H. Barber, Chicago; 
the Cornish, Curtis & Greene Co., Fort Atkin- 
son, Wis.; the Creamery Package Co., Chicago; 
the Vermont Farm Machine Co., Bellows Falls, 
Vt.; P. M. Sharpless, Elgin, 111., and Mr. Decker, 
Fond du Lac^ Wis., have offered to loan me 
cuts to illustrate the work. Mr. E. H. Far- 
rington, the World^s Fair Chemist, has prom- 

(3) 



4 PREFACE. 

ised to write for the book about the Babcock 
test. 

If I can give my brother workers some ideas 
that will enable them to do better work, and 
can induce a small percentage of the dairymen 
to apply the scale and Babcock test to their 
individual cows and dispose of the unprofitable 
ones, I shaM feel that I have accomplished 
some good. 



H. B. GURLER. 



De Kalh, III. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PART I.— PRIVATE DAIRYING. 

Chapter I.~The Dairy Herd, Selection, Breed and 

Breeding 9 

Chapter II.— Feed and Management 30 

Chapter III.— Care of Dairy Utensils 62 

Chapter IV.— Milking 65 

Chapter v.— Milk from Cow to Cream Vat 81 

Chapter VI.— Ripening and Churning 94 

Chapter VII.— Salting, Working, Packing and Print- 
ing 103 

Chapter VIII.— Marketing Dairy Butter 110 

Chapter IX.— Skim-milk 116 



PART II.— CREAMERY MANAGEMENT. 

Chapter I.— Care of Milk by Patrons 147 

Chapter II.— Receiving Milk at Creamery 154 

Chapter III.— The Babcock Milk Test (by E. H. Far- 

rington) 160 

Chapter IV.— Tempering and Separating 169 

Chapter V.— Ripening and Churning Cream. . . . 182 
Chapter Vl.^Salting, Working, Packing and Mar- 
keting. . ■ 204 

Chapter VII.— Care of Skim-milk at the Creamery. . 214 
Chapter VIII.— Care of Buildings and Utensils. . . 217 
Chapter IX.— Suggestions to Those About to Build a 

Creamery 226 

Chapter X.— Gathered-Cream Work. 238 

Chapter XI.— A Talk With Creamery Employes. . . 249 

Appendix.— An Acid Test of Cream 257 

(5) 



PAET I -PRIVATE DAIRYING. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE DAIRY HERD, SELECTION, BREED 
AND BREEDING. 

Here is the foundation of the whole dairy- 
business. Success depends more on the herd 
than on any other one point. Much, of course, 
depends on the feed and care, but the best of 
feed and care will not make a cow that has a 
capacity for only 125 lbs. of butter annually a 
profitable cow. 

Average cow in the United States.— When 
we think that the average of the 16,500,000 
cows in the United States is only 130 lbs. of 
butter annually, according to the last census, is 
it not time to be thinking how to improve in 
this work? There is no doubt as to there being 
room to improve, as there are herds in the 
United States that average 400 lbs. and above 
per cow annually, and herds in nearly every 
community in the dairy sections that average 
300 lbs. of butter per cow annually. 

Object lessons. — These 300 to 400-lb. dairies 
should be object lessons to all dair5^men. What 
one dairyman or dairy woman has done another 

(9) 



10 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

can do, and probably a little better can be done. 
It is certainly well for us to try to excel in 
whatever line we are working. I shall not ad- 
vise all dairymen to sell their present herds and 
buy registered cows of some of the dairy breeds. 
This is all right for those who can see their way 
clear to do so. I believe it is wise to breed 
registered animals when a person is so situated 
that he can. 

How to improve the herd. — What every 
dairyman can do to improve his herd is to test 
individual cows and dispose of such as do not 
come up to a profitable standard. This stand- 
ard will vary in different localities, depending 
on the cost of feed and labor and on the value 
of the products. 

Cost of feeding cows.— We should not take 
any other person's figures or estimates for this, 
but should know from our own ivork what it 
costs to feed a cow one year. To the cost of 
feed add labor and the interest on the invest- 
ment in the cow. We will suppose it costs $35 
to feed the cow a year and $12.50 for labor to 
care for her and $2.50 to pay interest. We now 
have $50 charged up against the cow. Now, 
what shall we find to put on the other side of 
the account? It is very plain to be seen that 
the 130-lb. cow is not in this race, as her butter 
will have to sell for 38 cents per pound to leave 
a profit. 



THE DAIRY HERD. 11 

Value of skim-milk.— We will allow |10 per 
cow for the skim-milk and we have a balance 
of $40 to be paid for by the butter before we 
have any profit. We will suppose as much 
butter is made in winter as summer, in w^hich 
case the average price after paying for making 
at the creamery will be about 21 cents per 
pound. Now it will require 190 lbs. of butter 
at 21 cents per pound to balance the $40 and 
leave us whole. In this case the cow that 
makes 190 lbs. of butter per year does not make 
us any profit. In my experience I find no profit 
in a 200-lb. cow. I might have 100 of them on 
my farm and not make $250 per year on the 
whole lot of them. 

Man, horse and cow. — Now please tell what 
is the sense in keeping such cows? We would 
not keep a horse that could only do work enough 
to pay for feed, neither would we keep a man 
who could only do enough to pay for his board. 
But yet most of us keep a dairy of cows one- 
fourth of which actually run us in debt. There 
is no excuse for this at this period of the dairy 
work. Before the introduction of the Babcock 
test there was some excuse for a dairyman not 
knowing what each individual cow was doing 
for him, though even then there was not suffi- 
cient excuse for this condition, as the cows 
could be tested by the churn. That required a 
great amount of work, but it paid. 



\2 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

Cream test. — The first test I applied to my 
cows was tiie test for cream, and this was 
twenty-five years ago. At that time it was 
generally supposed that the percentage or depth 
of cream that raised on samples of milk set in 
glass test tubes or dishes of uniform size and 
depth was a correct basis on which to judge of 
the butter value of the different cows' milk. I 
soon learned, as have hundreds of others in this 
line of work, that this test was not reliable, as 
I found that there was in some instances a dif- 
ference of 25 per cent in the batter value of 
milk that showed the same percentage of cream 
in the glass tubes. 

The Connecticut Experiment Station found 
cream furnished by different patrons of a cream- 
ery who set their milk in deep or submerged 
cans for twelve to twenty-four hours to contain 
from 13.8 to 24.9 per cent of fat. I proved the 
cream test to be unreliable by applying the 
cream test and the churn test to the same milk. 
The results of these comparisons caused me to 
abandon the cream test and start anew with 
the churn. 

Churn test. — This plan cost me much time 
and labor, each cow's milk being set separately 
and skimmed and churned separately. For this 
work I had a gang of six small churns of the 
dasher pattern, with the dashers attached to a 



THE DAIRY HERD. 13 

horizontal bar, ho I could operate the six at one 
time. This work paid me in several ways. It 
paid me to know my individual cows, so I could 
dispose of the unprofitable ones. It caused me 
to think better of my business and of myself. 
It opened a great field for improvement in the 
line of selection and breeding — a field large 
enough to give room for the most ambitious 
and progressive person. 

Percentages of cream and fat. — The follow- 
ing table shows the percentage of cream in 
fourteen different patrons' milk; also the per- 
centage of fat found in the same milk by the 
Babcock test: 

TABLE I.— MILK FROM DIFFERENT DAIRIES. 



Per cent 


Per cent 


Per cent 


Per cent 


Cream. 


Fat, 


Cream, 


Fat. 


17 


3.60 


17 


4.30 


16 


3.85 


17 


3.85 


15 


3.40 


8 


3.80 


8 


3.00 


10 

10 


3.60 


15 


3.00 


3.50 


16 


3.80 


10 


4i05 


14 


3.50 


10 


3.70 



And the second and third tables show the 
different cows in two dairies, the first column 
being the percentage of cream and the second 
column the percentage of fat by the Babcock 
test. A study of these two tables will show 
the unreliability of the cream test in judging 
the butter value of milk: 



14 



AMERICAN DAIRYING. 





TABLE II.— MILK FROM FIRST DAIRY. 




Per cent 


Per cent 


Per cent 


Per cent 


Cream, 


Fat. 


Cream. 


Fat. 


13... 


3.50 


17 


...4.00 


15... 


3.60 


17.. 


...3.90 


17... 


3.90 


13 


...3.30 


16... 


3.60 


17 


...3.80 


13... 


3.10 


20.. 


...4.00 


14 


4.00 

...3.70 


17 


...3.70 


17... 


19 


. . .4.50 




TABLE III.— MILK FROM SECOND DAIR^ 




Per cent 


Per cent 


Per cent 


Per cent 


Cream. 


Fat. 


Cream. 


Fat. 


19... 


4.00 


21 


...3.50 


19... 


4.00 


23 


...3.30 


18... 


5.40 


18 


...3.30 


18... 


4.00 


19 


...3.50 


15... 


3.60 


14 


...3.40 



Unimproved opportunities. — Why more 
dairymen do not improve this opportunity to 
help themselves I am at a loss to understand. 
No manufacturer could withstand the compe- 
tition he has to contend with if he left unim- 
proved opportunities like many dairymen are 
leaving in not testing and knowing what their 
individual cows are doing for them. With the 
Babcock test it is a very simple matter to tell 
what each cow is doing at any time, and there 
is now no excuse for a dairyman's not know- 
ing just where each individual cow stands. 

In the estimate we have made we find that 
it requires 190 lbs. of butter and the skim-milk 
to pay for feed, labor and interest. This being 
a fact we must have cows that will make at 



THE DAIRY HERD. 15 

least 200 lbs. annuall}'. Now let us test each 
cow and learn what she is doing. 

Testing the cows. — There are many ways of 
applying the test. So far as frequency of ap- 
plying it is concerned if a person wishes to 
know exactly what a cow is doing the milk 
must all be weighed and a sample taken from 
every milking and tested. The composite test 
(which will be referred to elsewhere) can be 
used for this work. A reasonably reliable test 
can be secured by testing one day in each month; 
a more reliable one by testing twice per month. 
For the past year's work I have adopted the 
plan of making three tests with four months 
between each test, each test to cover three 
days' time, a record of each milking to be kept, 
and a sample of milk from each milking to be 
put in a bottle that is to be marked with the 
name or number of the cow the milk is from. 
For taking the samples have your tinsmith 
make you a little cup one inch in diameter 
and two and a half inches deep. This will hold 
about one ounce and is sufficient. When a cow 
is milked first weigh and record the weight of 
the milk, then pour it from one pail to another 
back and forth three times, then take the little 
ounce cup full and put it into the sample bot- 
tle or jar. A pint fruit jar can be used for this 
purpose, or an eight-ounce bottle can be used 
by having a small funnel to fill with. 



10 AMERICAN DAIRYIN<>. 

Care of samples. — If this test is being made 
in warm weather care should be used to pre- 
serve the samples sweet for three days. This 
can be done by setting them on the floor of a 
cool cellar or by the use of bichromate of pot- 
ash, which can be bought at the drugstore in a 
pulverized form and put into each jar or bottle 
in quantities the size of a pea. This will pre- 
vent souring and keep the cream in a liquid 
condition so that it will mix with the milk 
with but little agitation. At the end of the 
three days the samples should be tested. 

How to get testing done. — If you are a 
patron of a creamery that has a Babcock tester 
get your creamery man to make the test for 
you. He will not ask you much for it and 
possibly will do it for nothing. When the test 
is worked and you have the weight of the milk 
it is an easy matter to get at the butter the cow 
is making daily. 

Estimating butter from test.— We will 
suppose that she gave 70 lbs. of milk in the 
three days and it tested 3.8 per cent of fat. 
This would give 2.66 lbs. of fat, to which we 
will add 124 per cent, or one-eighth, to get the 
amount of butter this fat will make. We do 
this because butter is not pure fat and we find 
in actual work that we can make one-eighth 
more butter from 100 lbs. of milk than the test 
shows of fat, though to secure this increase it 



THE DAIRY HERD. 17 

is necessary to do efficient work both in the 
creaming and churning. 

The average work done by the gravity system 
of cream raising would not warrant us in 
adding one-eighth to the fat found by the test 
to secure the probable butter, but with the 
separator this increase of butter over fat should 
be obtained, and if it is not the cause should 
be looked for and removed. By adding one- 
eighth to the 2.66 lbs. of butter-fat we get 2.99 
lbs. of butter in the three days, or practically 
one ]DOund per da}^ 

Simplest way to test.— A simpler form may 
be used. It will not give as accurate results as 
the three tests, but is very much better than 
no test. 

I have learned by following my individual 
cow tests that my cows averaged for 8.4 months 
the same as the average of the first six months. 
In other words, if a cow averaged 30 lbs. per 
month for the first six months she would make 
8.4 times that for the year's work and drop her 
calf at the same time as the previous year. 
She should give enough milk after the 8.4 
months to make the 2.4 months average with 
the first six months. I have proved this work 
in my dairy. This does not prove that it would 
be a reliable rule in all cases. 

When a cow is judged on a single test it 
should cover one week, the milk being weighed 



18 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

at each milking and a sample added to the 
composite jar from each milking. This test 
should be made at about the end of three 
months, as that will give an average of the 
first six months. When a cow is to be judged 
on a single test there is need of some thought 
and good judgment — more than when she is 
judged on three tests at intervals or on monthly 
tests. We will suppose a cow is fresh Jan. 1 
and is tested April 1. This will give a fair 
basis on which to judge her if she has had uni- 
form feed and care. But if she is fresh March 
1 and tested June 1 we shall secure too high a 
basis on which to judge her as she will be 
judged at her highest point of production, for 
she will produce more milk and butter June 1 
on pasture than she would May 1 on dry feed; 
in fact more than she would at any previous 
or subsequent time. 

We will suppose a cow gives 154 lbs. of milk 
in seven days and it tests 4.3 per cent of fat. 
This will make 6.612 lbs. of butter-fat in the 
seven days. To this we will add one-eighth for 
increase of butter over fat and we have 7.72 lbs. 
of butter in seven days, or 1.1 lbs. per day. This 
we will multiply by 252, the number of days in 
8.4 months, and we have 277 lbs. of butter for 
the cow's yearly work. 

A better way. — T would recommend this plan 
of testing only to those who will not take the 



THE DAIRY HERD. 19 

necessary time to make a more reliable test. I 
know how the average dairyman dreads to un- 
dertake this work and I offer this as the sim- 
plest way I know of to get facts that have 
value, feeling confident that when a dairyman 
has applied this test he will have become so 
much interested that he will apply a more 
thorough one. 

The benefit that a dairyman derives from 
testing his herd is much greater than one would 
at first suppose. We will call 200 lbs. of butter 
annually the line between profit and loss. This 
will hold good in the Central and most of the 
Western States. The Eastern States may need 
to put this line up to 225 lbs. on account of feed 
being higher. This is a point that every dairy- 
man must figure out for himself, whether he 
lives East or West, North or South. 

Comparative profit. — What I wish to bring 
out is the comparative profit of cows that make 
250 lbs. and those that make more. The 250-lb. 
cow leaves 50 lbs. for profit and a 300-lb. cow 
leaves 100 lbs. for profit, or twice as much as 
the 250-lb. cow, and is worth twice as much. 
The 350-lb. cow is worth three times as much 
as the 250-lb. cow and six times as much as the 
225-lb. cow. This is supposing that one cow 
consumes as much food as the other. This may 
or may not be tne case, but whether it is or 
not it does not in any case make an argument 



20 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

of sufficient weight to be considered when 
comparing 250-lb. cows with 350 to 400-lb. 
cows. 

The question of the ability of cows to pro- 
duce the most from the food consumed is an 
important one and should be followed as soon 
as we can reach it. 

Cows in debt to us. — But let us first weed 
out the cows that are getting in debt to us, and 
the number of such cows in the country is 
alarming. I believe a majority of the cows in 
the United States could be made profitable by 
proper feed and care, but the majority as now 
fed and cared for are evidently not profitable. 
The last United States census estimates the 
average amount of milk per cow annually at 
2,883 lbs., which, it would be fair to suppose, 
would make 130 lbs. of butter. I do not know 
of a place in the United States where a 130-lb. 
cow can be made profitable. 

Buy a Babcock tester.— If you have no con- 
venient way of getting your samples of milk 
tested buy a Babcock test machine and do your 
own testing. The dealers send full instruc- 
tions with the machines and any person with 
average intelligence can learn in a short time 
to operate one. This will be the most satis- 
factory way in the end and the cost will not be 
great. Every dairyman with ten cows can 
afford to have one. In fact no dairyman can 



THE DAIRY HERD. 21 

afford to go long without having his cows 
tested. 

When you buy a Babcock test machine go 
and see one oxDerated, if there is one in your 
vicinity. This will show you the simplicity of 
it and give you confidence. When you are 
ready to do some testing get a sample of milk 
and do some trial work with it. Work with it 
until you can get a half-dozen tests of the same 
milk to read alike or nearly so. The bottles 
having been bought of some reliable dealer 
who guarantees them accurate you will soon 
find your readings of the same milk very near 
alike. I remember one instance when our lady 
bookkeeper made twenty- four tests of the same 
milk and they all read alike. There was not 
enough difference to change the reading. This 
work will not only prove profitable but instruc- 
tive and interesting to a person that is cut out 
for a dairyman. It must be taken hold of with 
a grip that will allow of no slipping, and when 
a cow is found that does not pay a profit sell 
her for beef, as you are better off without her 
than with her. I found cows in my dairy that 
would eat up the profit of another cow that 
made 265 lbs. of butter annually. 

One cow better than two. — When I had the 
two cows I made nothing from the two, but 
when the poor one was sold I had a profit of 
$13.65 from the best one. There are thousands 



22 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

of such instances in the dairy work of our 
country. This is a matter in which we do not 
need to ask our legislatures for assistance un- 
less it is for legislation compelling us to im- 
prove our opportunities. 

In 1892 I set my standard at 200 lbs. of but- 
ter per cow and found twenty-one cows out of 
sixty-four to be below that standard and they 
were sold for beef. In 1893 I raised my stand- 
ard to 210 lbs. and had eighteen to sell for beef. 
In 1894 I raised the standard to 225 lbs. and had 
six to sell for beef. I hope in a very few years 
to be able to replace all cows that do not make 
250 lbs. of butter annually with better ones of 
my own raising. I can see no reason why per- 
sistent work on the part of any intelligent 
dairyman will not take him up to the point 
where he can dispose of all cows that do not 
make 300 lbs. of butter annually and secure an 
average for the herd of 400 lbs. or more. 

Intelligent breeding. — When we have once 
learned what each cow is doing for us we are in 
a position to do intelligent work in the line of 
breeding, and we are not in position to do the 
best work until we know each individual cow. 
We will admit the fact that the bull is half the 
herd so far as offspring is concerned, and he is 
a half that should be thoroughly looked after. 
Look well after the butter record of his ances- 
tors, especially his dam. Do not let a few dol- 



THE DAIRY HERD. 23 

lars prevent your securing the best you can 
find. It will be a good investment. 

Now that you know the butter record of each 
cow and you have a bull from some choice 
butter-making family, you are in position to 
grow some heifers that will do you good. These 
heifers should be grown on skim-milk after they 
are from one to two weeks old. This subject 
will be treated in the chapter on skim-milk. 
They must be kept growing continually, as any 
check in their growth is a cause of loss in size 
and development of the digestive organs, and 
consequently affects the future value of the 
animal. 

Age to breed. — I practice breeding my heif- 
ers so that they drop their first calves at two 
years of age. I am confident that they make 
better cows to come in milk at two years of 
age than later. They should be handled from 
the time they are calves, so that they may not 
be afraid of the person caring for them. Where 
this is done there is very little trouble when 
they drop their calves, but if they have not 
been so handled and are afraid of the person 
caring for them, and of their surroundings, they 
suffer much from fear; and much patience will 
be required to overcome their fear and teach 
them to be quiet while being milked. 

Establish the milking habit. — Care should 
be exercised during their first milking period 



24 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

to establish or fix the habit of milking as long 
as desirable. If they are allowed to go dry too 
early in their first year of milking they are 
more likely to do the same the succeeding year, 
and the habit is soon fixed. They should be 
milked to within two months or less of the time 
of dropping their calves. This is the kind of 
work that has developed and made it practica- 
ble to secure the large yields of butter from 
cows that we now so frequently obtain. 

Do not force a cow dry. If she persists in 
milking the whole time let her have her way 
about it. Drying off a persistent milker re- 
quires more care than the average milker will 
give to it. I have had such cows forced dry 
and when fresh again found a part of the udder 
injured so as to be useless, and I had a three- 
teated cow as the result. 

Buying cows. — As time passes and the Bab- 
cock test comes into more general use it will 
become more and more difficult to buy cows 
that will make a profit, as the farmers, becom- 
ing acquainted with their cows, will not sell 
their best ones. This is as it should be, and we 
should be prepared to meet this gradual change 
that is sure to come. 

What breed to select for dairy purposes I 
shall not undertake to tell you, only let it be 
some one of the special dairy-purpose breeds. 
Study this subject thoroughly and select the 



THE DAIRY HERD. 25 

breed you think best suited to your wants. I 
have grade Jerseys that are excellent cows, also 
grade Holstein-Friesians, grade Short-horns, 
and registered Jerseys. 

Prof. W. H. Caldwell of New Hampshire, wdio 
was superintendent of the Guernsey cows in 
the great breed contest at the Columbian Ex- 
position, in writing on this subject uses the fol- 
lowing language : 

This law of natural selection applies with equal force to 
the dairy cow. The progressive dairyman wants a dairy 
cow whose lines of temperament and functions are for milk 
or butter, as may be desired. It does not necessitate fancy- 
bred stock. Don't, however, believe I wish to raise one 
word against pedigreed stock. There is place for it, and it 
should be more generally distributed than it now is and 
farmers should be more eager for its influence. My object 
now is to take the problem confronting the hundreds of 
dairymen whose conditions have not led to the same. Com- 
petition and economy are forcing them to improve their 
stock. This lesson of individuality should be a most en- 
couraging one to them. They undoubtedly have many a fine 
profitable dairy cow in their own herds. What is needed is 
to have some plan of improvement. 

The Illinois Experiment Station has recently 
been purchasing cows for a dairy. The scale 
and Babcock test have been applied to every 
cow and no cow purchased that did not prom- 
ise to make 800 lbs. of butter annually. The 
fact that we were able to purchase 300-lb. cows 
in the vicinity of the experiment station was a 
source of gratification to me. It shows very 
conclusively to me that there are good cows in 



26 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

all localities. What is needed is to become 
acquainted with them. 

I now have on my farm sixty-five heifers 
that are from grade Holstein-Friesian cows and 
registered Jersey bulls. They are a very prom- 
ising lot of heifers and I feel confident they 
will do me good work. They have the Jersey 
markings mostly and are open and roomily 
built, w^ith good size and large digestive or- 
gans. A pony-built heifer is pretty to look at 
but I pass them when looking for the future 
cow. My business brings me in contact with 
dairymen daily, and in conversation with them 
I often feel that they do not realize the oppor- 
tunities there are for improvement on our 
present work in our dairies. It is very hard to 
realize what a delicate piece of machinery the 
cow is. We have a great deal to learn about 
her yet, and the more I learn the more I see I 
need to learn. Raising calves will be treated 
under the head of skim -milk. 

Test before buying. — When buying cows it 
is best to test them before buying and avoid 
unprofitable cows. This can easily be done if 
the cow is giving milk. With the present low 
price of beef a discarded cow will not sell for 
beef without considerable loss from the price 
paid for her as a milch cow. Several years ago 
when fat cows would sell to the butchers for 
from four to five cents a pound, live weight, we 



THE DAIRY HERD. 27 

could dispose of them without loss, but now it 
is quite different, as cow beef is very low 
priced. 

Disposing of unprofitable cows.— The best 
way I have learned to dispose of cows that are 
below standard is to feed heavy and milk at 
the same time. After three or four months 
most cows will improve in condition, and may 
be fattened while being milked and sold for 
beef soon after being dry. Fattening dry cows 
is unprofitable work. I have never been able 
to do it without loss. I advise to fattea while 
milking always, and sell as soon as possible 
after the cow is dry, as a dry cow cannot be fed 
at a profit with the present low price of cow 
beef. 

Cost of cow beef. — The Maryland Experi- 
ment Station reports a comparison of the cost 
of fattening cows nine to ten years old and 
those five to six years old, feeding corn-meal, 
wheat middlings, linseed-meal and Hungarian 
hay or corn stover. In eight weeks the two 
older cows gained 105 lbs., at a cost for food of 
$20.65, or nearly twenty cents per pound of 
gain, and the two younger cows gained 209 
lbs., at a cost of $21.95, or about ten and one- 
half cents per pound. Some European work in 
this line has shown it to be very unprofitable. 

Cost of feeding individual cows.— When we 
have got our cows tested pretty thoroughly for 



28 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

butter it is time for us to test to learn what 
feed each individual cow consumes. The Penn- 
sylvania Experiment Station has done some 
work in this line, and with results that are in- 
teresting, instructive and valuable. This work 
is reported in "Bulletin No. 24." On page 11 
of this bulletin we find that the cow Marguerite 
produced 6,512 lbs. of milk and 296 lbs. of but- 
ter, and the cow Ramona 5.459 lbs. of milk and 
279 lbs. of butter. 

Judging these cows on the basis of the but- 
ter made we would call Marguerite the best 
cow, but when the cost of feed is deducted we 
find that Marguerite has left to her credit $31.50 
and Ramona has $61.50. In closing this bulletin 
they say: 

The reader may regard these as extreme cases, and yet 
they were selected from the ten animals used in this experi- 
ment and we have no reason to doubt that as great differences 
might be found in any ordinary herd. 

Unquestionably the presumption is in favor of the -animal 
producing the largest quantity of butter per year. On the 
average this is true, but the most successful dairyman has 
to deal with individuals rather than averages, otherwise it 
will be impossible for him to derive the greatest possible 
profit from his business. 

These facts are in no way applicable to the farmer who 
has yet to learn what each animal in his herd is producing. 
To him the use of the Babcock test and milk scales is of 
paramount importance. Bat to the careful, thoughtful dairy- 
man there is undoubtedly an opportunity for a great saving 
by applying the feed test to each animal, as well as the but- 
ter test, and weeding out those animals that do not make 
satisfactory return for the food consumed. It is true that 



THE DAIRY HERD. 29 

this involves some labor and pains, but requires a small out- 
lay of money, . While making such a test ho will also be 
able to determine the quantity of food that each animal re- 
quires for the greatest profit, and b3 thereby doubly repaid 
for his labor. 



CHAPTER II. 



FEED AND MANAGEMENT. 

Ill feeding cows the point that attracts my 
attention more frequently than any otiier is 
palatability of the food. This point must be 
looked after with great care, as it is the key to 
the situation. lb matters but little how much 
nutriment there is in any kind of food; if it is 
not palatable the cow^s will not eat enough of 
it to make a satisfactory profit. 

The cow a machine. — The cow is a machine 
for manufacturing our coarse fodder and grain 
into milk. This machine requires a certain 
amount to keep it in running order, and our 
profit comes from what she consumes after she 
has taken care of herself. A food may be so 
lacking in palatability that she will only con- 
sume enough to sustain herself, in which case 
our profit is a minus quantity. The question 
of digestibility enters into the problem, bub my 
experience has caused me to think that palata- 
bility and digestibility go together, or at least 
a palatable food is a digestible food. Palata- 
bility we must have as w^e cannot succeed with- 

(30) 



FEED AND MANAGEMENT. 31 

out it. How shall we secure it? With our hay- 
it can be attained by cutting at the proper time 
and curing and protecting it in a proper manner. 
My experience teaches me that the clovers, and 
especially the medium clover, make the best 
hay for milch cows when cut at the proper 
time and well cured and secured. 

Make hay early. — Only a small percentage 
of farmers commence making hay as early as 
they should. A pressure of other farm work is 
the excuse for this. I say excuse for the reason 
that many farmers know that they are not do- 
ing as well as they know how^ but other work 
is crowding and they postpone haying thinking 
they will not lose as much by letting clover 
wait as they will by letting some other crop 
wait. The fact is we cannot afford to let any- 
thing wait, but we sometimes are compelled to, 
or at least we think w^e are. Clover should be 
cut for hay when in full blossom, and the same 
rule will apply to other grasses when to be 
made into hay for cows. If we have a large 
quantity to cut we need to commence before it 
reaches its best stage, otherwise some of it will 
become much too far advanced before we can 
secure it all. The cow cannot overcome our 
mistakes. It does not matter what the cause 
of the delay is, when it gets to the cow she is 
compelled to accept of our excuses for not fur- 
nishing a more palatable and nutritious food, 



82 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

and we are compelled to accept her excuse for 
not producing a profitable quantity of milk. 
This is an inevitable result. The cow is not to 
blame, for she has done her best. If she could 
talk English I believe she would make some of 
us ashamed of ourselves. 

Study cow language. — If we would try to 
learn cow language it would pay us well for 
the time spent — learn to know as soon as we 
look the cow over and her surroundings what 
we have failed to do that we should have done 
for the comfort and health of the cow and 
profit to the owner. There are many things 
here that I cannot describe. We must study 
the situation and the cows; try to reach the 
condition that we know intuitively when things 
are right and when they are not right. This 
will come with experience and with it will 
come an increased profit for our work. We 
cannot cover the loss from poor hay or silage. 
I have never been able to bridge over the mis- 
takes I have made in not securing the best hay 
or silage for my cows. An increase of the 
ground feed will help, but it will not cover the 
mistake in full. At the same time it increases 
the cost of food as a rule, as in most localities 
the coarse foods are the most economical so far 
as they can be used. We pay dearly when we 
fail to secure our hay, corn-fodder and silage in 
the best possible condition. We lose some- 



FEED AND MANAGEMENT. 33 

thing that we can never recover. We can 
simi3ly learn not to do it again. 

When to cut corn for silage. — I believe I 
get the most out of my corn crop by cutting it 
when the grains are beginning to glaze, or be- 
tween denting and glazing. The large white 
Southern corn I put in the silo when it is well 
dented and it makes excellent feed — I think 
better feed than our native corn. In all cases 
grow a variety for the silo that will reach the 
stage of denting or glazing before frosts. One 
of the early mistakes with the silo was in put- 
ting in the corn too immature. It had not the 
nutriment in it. It had not reached its best. 
I saw many illustrations of this fact the season 
of 1893, which was extremely dry, with very 
little rain after July 4. The pastures were 
brown in August and the farmers were com- 
pelled to feed green corn or hay to their cows 
or let thdm dry up. The corn was not suffi- 
ciently matured at this time and we found our 
yield of butter at the creameries running very 
low — a large percentage lower than the corre- 
sponding time the previous season. I made 
many comparisons between the two years from 
different patrons. The previous year there 
was excellent x)asture and after-feed for the 
cows, and as a rule they did not need any extra 
food. In a comparison of eighteen patrons I 
found but one with a higher percentage of fat 



34 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

that season than the previous one; two with 
the same, and all others with a lower x^ercent- 
age of fat. The average of the whole list 
showed 6 per cent less fat in 1893 than during 
the corresponding time in 1892. With all points 
equal we should have expected a little higher 
per cent of fat in 1893 than in 1892, from the 
fact that our patrons are all getting pay by the 
test, and this stimulates them to test their cows 
and do considerable weeding out. We get a 
larger butter yield than we did before we paid 
by the test. 

Exposure of silage surface. — A point I wish 
to speak of in connection with the silo is the 
amount of surface exposed at one time. Ex- 
perience has taught me that it should not be 
more than eight surface feet per cow in cold 
weather and less in warm weather, as the 
silage will commence to decay more quickly in 
warm weather. I am confident that the mis- 
take is oftener made with the silo of exposing 
too much surface for the stock to be fed than 
any other. When it is exposed so long that de- 
cay commences it will make bad milk, the same 
as any other decayed food will. 

With ten years' experience I firmly believe 
that sound silage from properly matured corn 
will produce milk and butter that is above criti- 
cism. There will be no fault traceable to the 
feed. I have frequently been asked w^hy the 



FEED AND MANAGEMENT. 



35 



condensed milk factories do not allow their 
patrons to feed silage if it is all right as a milk- 
producing food. The Lansing, Mich., factory 
does allow its patrons to feed silage, and has, 
moreover, issued a pamphlet urging them to 
use it and instructing them how to grow, han- 
dle and feed silage. There is probably more 
danger of the cows getting unsound food when, 
silage is fed than there is when dry food is used. 
When we learn to make perfect silage, and use 
proper care in feeding it, so that decay does not 
commence before it is fed, I believe we shall 
find the objections to it will gradually wear 
away and in time disappear. 

Silage butter. — I have made butter from 
silage milk and had it scored ])y experts, and 
none of them found anything to cause them to 
think of silage. I have also had samples of 
silage milk warmed to 110 deg. to 115 deg. 
Fall, and examined for Havor daily for weeks, 
and nothing found to cause us to think of the 
silo; but Ave had reason to think of unclean 
cans, the pig pen, the cow stable and various 
other things which the milk had absorbed by 
being exposed after milking. Milk exposed in 
a silo in an open vessel will absorb from the 
silage, so that any person acquainted with the 
silo will know where it has been exposed. 

Planting for silage. — I formerly pk/ited 
twenty to thirty quarts of corn per aci<~j tvt 



36 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

silage. I now plant ten quarts, which gives an 
ear on most of the stalks. I believe this is 
more economical than to grow more fodder 
and then feed more ground feed. I find the 
cows digest all the corn when it is put in the 
silo at the denting and glazing stage. I do not 
believe it pays to husk, shell and grind the 
corn for cows when we hava a silo, as I fail to 
find any loss when put in at the proper time, 
for the cows, judging from the appearance of 
the droppings, digest all of the ears. 

The cow the best judge. — I believe the best 
guide as to the proper stage of maturity to have 
the corn when put into the silo is the cow, and 
the desirable point is shown by watching the 
work of the cow. My experience has taught 
me that it is between the denting and glazing 
stage. If it goes much past the glazing stage 
the cow will not digest it all. 

A feeding problem. — Frequently when ex- 
amining my cows and their work in the past 
when feeding shocked corn, cut ears and fodder 
together I have noticed the large quantity of 
undigested corn in the manure and have asked 
myself the question: "Can we afford to let the 
cow employ her digestive machineiy on food 
that she does not chew and digest?" My 
opinion is that we cannot. I am confident she 
does not do as profitable Avork for her owner as 
when she has the food in a condition that she 



FEED AND MANAGEMENT. 37 

can eat and digest it. I also believe this trying 
to do what she cannot wears ont her digestive 
machinery, and therefore she will not continue 
to do profitable work as long as she would if 
supplied with the food in a digestible condition. 
There is a difference between a cow^ and a 
steer. If the cow is a good one we wish to keep 
her as long as she is profitable. The steer we 
expect to dispose of as soon as it reaches ma- 
turity, if not before, and his machinery may 
stand the wear and tear the necessary time, but 
that of the cow I believe will not. I cannot 
offer any figures to prove my position on this 
point. It is an opinion formed from observa- 
tion. 

If a farmer wishes to carry all the cattle pos- 
sible on his farm and buy ground feed for them 
he should plant his corn thick enough so that 
it will not ear, as more fodder can be grown in 
this way." It is possible that a larger profit can 
be secured from the farm in this way, but I am 
confident a larger profit can be secured per cow 
from feeding silage when the corn is planted so 
as to grow^ ears on most of the stalks and 
when it is put in the silo in the dented stage 
and before glazing. In the early silo work the 
corn w^as put in too green. Now we — or some 
of us — are at the other extreme and are putting 
in corn too dry to pack sufficiently close to ex- 
clude the air, so as to prevent mold and decay. 



00 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

1 have known this trouble in my locality in the 
last two years. Some of my corn got frosted 
last season before we were through filling the 
silos and I sprinkled it as it passed from the 
cutter up the elevator. I accomplished this by 
conducting water through a hose to the foot of 
the elevator and spraying the corn as it dropped 
from the cutter into the foot of the elevator. 
This should be done with frosted corn or corn 
that has become too dry from any cause. Do 
not be afraid the water will do any harm, as it 
will not, but there is danger of harm if the 
water is not used. This information cost me 
enough so that I remember it. 

If we put corn into the silo that has not suf- 
ficient weight in itself to pack so as to exclude 
the air we must add water sufiicient to accom- 
plish this or provide some other means of doing 
it, or we will have moldy silage or perhaps find 
there has been sufficient heat to cause it to be 
black, and it will smell like burned molasses. 

How fast to fill the silo. — When corn has 
reached the stage of denting to glazing w^e can 
safely put it in as fast as cut in the field. In 
fact I think it best to do so. For a part of my 
work last season I had a machine that cut one 
row at a time and elevated it onto the wagon 
driven by the side. With it two men and five 
horses cut and load one row as fast as the horses 
walk. This was a trial machine, but I am hope- 



FEED AND MANAGEMENT. 39 

ful that I shall have a machine for next season 
that will do this work quite satisfactorily. 
When this is accomplished the expense of fill- 
ing our silos will be materially reduced. 

Wet chaff for weighting silos. — For three 
years I have used chaff to weight my silos, hav- 
ing first made it as wet as possible. In this 
condition it packs very closely and makes the 
best covering I have ever used. Twelve inches 
of it will protect the corn so there will be none 
of it lost from decay. 

Warm the water. — As soon as we get freez- 
ing w^eather I warm the water for my cows. I 
have a steam boiler at my farm and a reservoir 
for water on the floor above. The water runs 
underground to the stables. When we wish to 
warm the water for the cows we connect the 
water and steam pipes and inject sufficient 
steam into the water as it runs to the barn to 
give the- desired temperature — 75 to 80 deg. 
Fall.- I find my cows prefer the warm water to 
cold water. They give more milk w^hen they 
have w^arm water; they also look better and 
are less liable to sickness. It is safe to let a 
cow drink all the w^arm water she wants at 
any time, but it is not safe to let her drink all 
the cold water she wants. This I know to my 
cost. 

I have heard men argue that warm water is 
not palatable to stock. This does not agree 



40 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

with my experience. I once saw some of my 
young stock get into a water tank to reach the 
warm water that was running in from a pipe 
on the opposite side of the tank where they 
could not reach it without getting into the 
tank. I have also watched my cows in the pas- 
ture in the summer and fall. I have an eight- 
inch tile discharging into an open ditch forty 
rods from a stream into which it empties. In 
warm weather the cows will drink from this 
open ditch near its outlet into the stream 
where the water is warmer than at the mouth 
of the tile. But as soon as it gets cold in the 
autumn the cows go to the mouth of the tile 
where the water is the warmest. In both cases 
they appear to prefer to drink at the ]Doint 
where the water is the warmest. 

I believe it is more economical to warm the 
water before the cow drinks it, with coal at 
$3 or $4 per ton, than it is to warm it with 
hay and grain after she drinks. Hay and grain 
do not get low-priced enough in JSTorthern 
Illinois to be used as fuel. I have seen the 
time when corn was a more economical fuel 
than coal, but coal is lower and corn higher 
than at that time. We do not burn it any 
more. 

Watering in the stable. — I have never wa- 
tered my cows in the stable. I have thought 
considerable about it. I have seen a number 



FEED AND MANAGEMENT. 41 

of stables fitted with watering devices. I do 
not believe it is advisable to allow the water to 
stand exposed in an open vessel in the stable 
as it w^iil absorb any impurities there may be 
in the atmosphere. This we all know to be a 
fact if we will give it thought. Another ob- 
jection to open water in the manger or within 
reach of the cow is the liability of the cows 
dropping feed into it. This will cause the 
water to get in bad condition in a very short 
time. When watering in the stable I think it 
would be safest and best to water twice per 
day, and after watering empty the water buck- 
ets and close them so the stock cannot get any 
food into them. 

I cannot yet believe it is not well for the 
cows to go into the yard as many at a time as 
have room to drink, get what warm water they 
want, and then when cold or stormy be re- 
turned to' the barn and another lot turned out. 
When it is warm and pleasant allow the cows 
to remain a few hours in the yard; it will do 
them' good. A little exercise is good, and fresh 
or pure air is a necessity if we are to preserve 
the health of our stock. 

About tuberculosis. — Ventilation is a vital 
question, and is at the present time being 
forced upon our attention more than it has 
been in a long time. Tuberculosis having been 
detected m some prominent herds is sufficient 



42 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

warrant for us to be thinking about the cause 
of this disease developing in some herds and not 
in others. I believe poor ventilation is the 
greatest promoter of this disease. I fear some 
of us have paid more attention to securing 
warm stables than we have to securing good 
air or ventilation. This is a question w^e shall 
receive information on from our experiment 
stations in the near future, as at least three of 
them have found their herds of cows afflicted 
w^ith this disease. At first I felt it was too bad 
to have our experiment station herds afflicted 
in this way, but since giving the subject more 
thought I have come to the conclusion that it 
is better to have the station herds afflicted than 
any other herds, as it will give an opportunity 
for us to learn more about it through investiga- 
tion than we otherwise would. The probabilities 
are that there is no more of this disease in our 
country than there has previously been. We 
are discovering more of it, as we have more 
reliable means of detecting the disease. This 
is a question that I do not feel competent to 
write much about, but at the same time there 
is room for good horse sense to be used. I re- 
cently had an interesting conversation with a 
veterinary professor in one of our agricultural 
colleges (a man who had had several years' 
practice before becoming a teacher), in which 
he said he was fond of milk and expected to 



FEED AND MANAGEMENT. 43 

continue using it, and that if all persons that 
had used milk from tuberculous cows had died 
with consumption we would have a much 
smaller iDopulation than we now have. I be- 
lieve that diseased cows should be killed when 
discovered, but I do not believe that a large 
percentage of our cows are afflicted with this 
disease. 

Amount of silage fed. — I feed what corn 
silage my cows will eat. I also feed some hay 
once per day as a rule. I find my cows thrive 
well and do profitable work when they have 
only the corn silage for coarse food. The 
amount of ground feed to be given in connec- 
tion with the silage depends on the amount of 
corn in the silage. When the silage is made 
from corn that would husk forty bushels per 
acre I feed to mature cows five pounds of wheat 
shorts and ^ve pounds of grano-gluten feed. 
The lattei' is a kiln-dried, whisky-distillery feed 
which has been subjected to a heat that kills 
all germs of ferment. My cows invariably 
shrink in the flow of milk and in total fat pro- 
duced when I change from corn silage to hay, 
and the cost of feeding the cows just as surely 
increases. 

Can we afford to feed oats ? — Oats are an ex- 
cellent feed for cows, but as a rule it pays me 
to sell my oats and buy shorts and bran. When 
oats are comparatively low priced I grind them 



44 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

and feed to the cows. At present, with oats 
worth twenty-seven cents a bnshel and wheat 
bran and coarse middlings $13 per ton, it figures 
as follows: A ton of oats is sixty-two and a 
half bushels, and at twenty-seven cents equals 
$16.87. Grrinding at two cents a bushel makes 
$1.25, and this added to $16.87 makes a total of 
$18.12. If a farmer has no mill to do his grind- 
ing it makes no difference whether he draws 
his oats to mill and back or draws the oats to 
market and drawls home other feed. The Wis- 
consin Experiment Station has proved by the 
cow that oats are worth 10 per cent more than 
wheat bran to feed cows. When bran is worth 
$13 oats are worth $14.30. Now, can I afford 
to feed them when they are worth $18.12 in 
market? 

Rejected food. — The silage and hay left by 
my cows are removed from the mangers and 
given to the young heifers, with grain food 
added, so nothing goes to waste. It will not 
answer to let rejected food remain in the man- 
gers or feed-boxes, as it will cause a cow to get 
off her feed and off in her milk, and away goes 
the profit. 

The calving. — My cow\s drop their calves in 
the months of September to December and go 
dry on pasture and milk as long as they ought 
to — in fact in many cases longer than they 
ought to. I do not feed these cows ground feed 



FEED AND MANAGEMENT. 45 

after they get full pasture. I am in doubt 
about there being a profit in feeding ground 
feed to cows when they are on full pasture. 
But this is not the vital point here. The main 
question is the health and usefulness of the 
cow. My experience has convinced me that 
there is very little danger at calving time with 
cows that calve in the fall going dry on pasture 
and having no grain food after they get full 
pasturage until they are fresh again. My dairy 
is very free from troubles at calving time when 
treated in this way. 

Dr. Pierson on cow-feeding. — In January, 
1894, 1 had the pleasure of listening to a lecture 
by Dr. Pierson of the Philadelphia Veterinary 
College before the short course class at the 
Pennsylvania State College, in which he told 
us of the danger of giving too much grain feed 
to cows when dry. He said it led to trouble at 
time of parturition. Plenty of grass or other 
succulent food puts the cow's system in the 
best possible condition for this period. Do not 
understand that I do not feed my cows in case 
of short pasture from drouth or any other 
cause. Every farmer should plant corn for this 
IDurpose if he is in the corn belt. If not, he 
should plant some other crop, as the cow must 
have all she wants of some proper food. 

A New York experiment. — The New York 
(Cornell University) Experiment Station has 



46 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

done some very interesting and valuable work 
covering three seasons (1889, 1890, 1891), com- 
paring the effects of grain vs, no grain for cows 
on pasture. The grain consisted of cotton-seed 
meal and bran fed alone or with malt sprouts 
or corn-meal. The first two years the pasture 
was luxuriant and there was no increased yield 
of either milk or butter from feeding the grain. 
The yield of butter was practically the same 
for the lots with and without grain. The first 
year the milk fell off in yield but became richer 
in fat on grain. The third year the pasture 
was at no time very luxuriant. The eight cows 
receiving grain produced just enough more 
milk and butter to pay for the cost of the 
grain. The last two years the changes in live 
weight were observed and it was found that 
the cows receiving grain increased more in live 
weight than those receiving no grain. 

Kansas experimental work. — The Kansas 
Station (report 1888) observed an increased 
yield of milk and butter when either corn- 
ineal, wheat bran or ground oats v\^ere fed in 
addition to pasture, but this increase did not 
nearly pay the cost of the grain. In the above 
experiments no account was taken of the in- 
creased value of the manure or the saving of 
pastures due to the grain feed. 

Why should cows freshen in autumn?— 
There are several reasons why I prefer to have 



FEED AND MANAGEMENT. 47 

my COWS fresh in the fall. First, they will give 
more milk in the year than they will if fresh 
in the spring. When they freshen in the fall 
they are like fresh cow^s when they get to pas- 
ture in the spring, and they milk as long as 
they ought to, and in many cases too long. 
But when they are fresh in the spring they are 
ready to dry up at the commencement of cold 
weather, and they will dry up in spite of all 
the average dairyman will do to prevent it. It 
also gives the least milking to be done at the 
time in summer when the farm work is crowd- 
ing and it distributes the labor so there is work 
for the same force of help the year around. 
The moral effect is good, as the farmer must be 
home at milking time. He cannot remain in 
town and gossip until bedtime. 

Moreover, we secure the largest flow of milk 
at the time when it brings the best price. The 
difference in the price of summer and winter 
milk and butter will probably be less in the 
future than it has been in the past. Especially 
will this be the case with butter on account of 
the improved methods of cold storage. It was 
formerly thought that butter was injured by a 
temperature below freezing; now we have 
learned that it is desirable to have it held at a 
temperature several degrees below freezing. 
This will doubtless cause an increased demand 
for butter to be held in cold storage and put on 



48 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

the market in fall and winter. This seems to 
me a natural result of the changed conditions. 
At the same time I expect to continue my 
present method of having my cows fresh in the 
fall months. 

Warm stables. — All stables should be so pro- 
tected from the cold that the manure will not 
freeze in them during the coldest weather. A 
cheap stable can be made frost-proof by nail- 
ing boards inside the posts or studs and filling 
solid with straw between. I practiced this with 
my first cow stable and kept my cows as com- 
fortable as I have since in more expensive 
stables. I have plenty of light in the stables 
and good ventilation. 

The following I clip from The Dairij of Lon- 
don, Eng. Comment is unnecessary: 

Mr. Alexander Pottie, M. R. C. V. S., Paisley, in a lec- 
ture under the auspices of the Glasgow and West of Scot- 
land Agricultural Discussion Society, on "How to Make the 
Most of the Cow in Winter," said that there was a great deal 
of misunderstanding as to what was the proper temperature 
that should be maintained in byres [barns] in winter. From 
experiments extending over a considerable period, which he 
had made in byres, he found that the temperature at which 
a cow gave the largest amount of milk was 63 deg. No arti- 
ficial heat was necessary— byres should be heated by means 
of the warmth of the cows in them. In a properly-con- 
structed byre the difference in value of milk obtained from 
twenty-nine or thirty cows in a temperature of 63 deg. was 
about £3 more per week than when the temperature was 52 
deg. Farmers did not seem to be aware of the loss they 
were sustaining by keeping their cows in cold byres. 



FEED AND MANAGEMENT. 49 

How confine the cows, — I have used neck 
ties and stanchions, but am discarding them 
and putting in the Bidwell stall. I do not be- 
lieve we can afford to use the stanchions, for 
they do not help us to get past the 300-lb. 
mark, and that is what we must do if we make 
it pay. 

With a warm stable, well lighted and ven- 
tilated, plenty of silage, early-cut clover hay 
and warm water to drink, I have very little 
need of a veterinarian in my dairy. The cows 
must be made comfortable at all times and in 
all places. Any failure here the cow will ac- 
count to you for daily by a shortage in milk 
and butter-fat. The cow can make her wants 
known to a man that is using his brains in his 
work. Here is a great field for thought and 
study to improve on our present methods. 

Seeking a milk test. — Several years ago I 
had an experience with abortion in my dairy. 
1 then had sixty cows that I had worked sev- 
eral j^ears in getting up to my idea of what a 
cow should be. The first cow lost her calf in 
July and between that time and the following 
June thirty-five of the sixty cows aborted. 
This broke my dairy up badly, as many of the 
cows failed to breed, became fat and dried up 
with their milk, and I was compelled to sell 
them for beef. About this time I commenced 
to take my milk to one of our creameries and 



50 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

pool with every other patron, as we had no 
practical way to test niilk. I bought cows for 
a few years to keep up my dairy, but could not 
get satisfaction and went back to my old plan 
of raising the heifer calves. The only test I 
applied was the weight of milk. I was forced 
to do this, as I could not afford to pool grade 
Jersey milk with other milk that had been pro- 
duced with quantity alone in view. I was al- 
ways in open rebellion against this plan and 
hunting for some practical test that we could 
apply to our dairies and to the individual cows 
in the dairies. I felt all the time that I was a 
backslider in my work and it irritated me ter- 
ribly. 

Credit to the scientists.— When Prof. Short 
of the Wisconsin Experiment Station brought 
out his test my firm secured one, and later Prof. 
Patrick's test was purchased, which was a long 
step in advance. Next came a letter from Prof. 
W. A. Henry^ asking me to go to Madison and 
see Dr. Babcock's new test, as he thought he 
had one that would fill the wants of the dairy- 
man. He was right, as it has now come into 
use in all dairy countries. I bought such parts 
as I could at Madison and got up the first ma- 
chine used outside the Wisconsin Experiment 
Station, and we are using it now to do the test 
work for six creameries. 

Abortion from ergot - treatment. — The 



FEED AND MANAGEMENT. 51 

cause of my first trouble with abortion I never 
became fully satisfied about, but connected it 
with a suDimer freshet that Hooded a part of 
my pasture. I suspected it was caused by er- 
gotized grass on this flooded land. I do not 
now know that to have been the cause, but I 
still think it was. It was three years before 
my dairy was clear of the trouble, and I had no 
more of it until the summer of 1892, when fif- 
teen cows lost their calves, the trouble com- 
mencing at the same time in July as in the 
former case. I had been fearing it, as the con- 
ditions were nearly the same as they were 
when I had the first trouble. I secured some 
remedies and sought advice from different 
sources, but it came as I feared it would. The 
flood water had caused my pasture to be short 
and I had cut clover from new ground that had 
grown rye the previous year and had consider- 
able volunteer rye with the clover. The trouble 
commenced soon after using this clover and rye. 
Every cow that lost her calf was immediately 
isolated and treated with vaginal injections of 
bichloride of mercury, using one part to four 
thousand of water and using one gallon at a 
treatment three times per week. The same 
lotion was used to wash the vulva and tail and 
any parts necessary. The trouble ended in a 
few weeks and I had no more of it until the fol- 
lowing spring when feeding the hay cut from 



52 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

the same rye field of clover. Then three cows 
aborted and on investigation I found plenty of 
ergot in the rye. The trouble ended when we 
stopped feeding this hay. 

Now I can say this: I am thoroughly sat- 
isfied that ergot caused the abortion in one 
case. In the other I think it did, but am not 
sure. I believe I should have lost from one- 
half to two-thirds of my calves in the last case 
if I had not isolated and treated the cows. I 
am confident that there are several causes of 
abortion in cows. What I know about it is as 
nothing in comparison with what I do not know. 
I often think of what one of the commissioners 
appointed to investigate the subject by the 
New York Legislature several years ago said 
when through with the investigation. He said 
he did not know as much about the cause of 
abortion as he thought he did when he com- 
menced the investigation. 

Rations. — Here I will draw from the Wis- 
consin Experiment Station "Bulletin No. 38/' 
entitled, "One Hundred American Rations for 
Dairy Cows." I do this because I believe it is 
of more value to dairymen than any other 
material at my command. I will give the name 
and post-otfice address of owner or manager; 
name of breed; the weight of cow; annual 
yield of milk; annual yield of butter; percent- 
age of fat in milk, and the ration fed. Prof. 



FEED AND MANAGEMENT. 53 

WoU says: "For the sake of comparison the 
components of the rations have all been calcu- 
lated per 1,000 lbs. live weight." 

The following selections from the 100 rations 
in "Bulletin No. 38" include localities from the 
Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains and a variety 
of foods, though silage is included in a majority 
of them: 

No. 1 — J. W. Goss, Hygiene, Col. Jersey cows; average 
weight, 900 lbs.; annual yield of milk, 5.000 lbs.; annual yield 
of butter, 340 lbs.; percentage of fat in milk, 5. Ration— 
30 lbs. corn silage, 10 lbs. alfalfa hay. 10 lbs. clover hay, 5 lbs. 
roller bran, 2 lbs. corn-meal. 

No. 5 — E. S. Henry, Rockville. Conn. Jersey cows; aver- 
age weight, 900 lbs.; annual yield of butter, 375 lbs. Ration 
— 35 lbs. corn silage, 10 lbs. hay, 3 lbs. bran, 3 lbs. corn-and- 
cob meal, 2 lbs. cotton-seed meal, 2 lbs. Chicago gluten-meal. 

No. 6— A. Bourquin, Nokomis, 111. Brown Swiss cows; 
average weight, 1,400 lbs.; annual yield of butter, 415 lbs. 
Ration — 7i lbs. clover hay, 7i lbs. timothy hay, 12 lbs. corn- 
and-cob meal, 8 lbs. bran. H lbs. linseed-meal, li lbs. cotton- 
seed meal. 

No. 11 — Mrs. Kate M. Busick, Wabash, Ind. Jersey cows; 
average weight, 800 lbs.; annual yield of milk, 4,500 lbs.: an- 
nual yield of butter, 300 lbs.; percentage of fat in milk, 5.9. 
Ration— 30 lbs. corn silage, 5 lbs. clover hay, 3 lbs. corn- 
fodder, 1 lb. oat straw, 1 lb. wheat straw, 5 lbs. bran, 2 lbs. 
oil-meal, 2 lbs. cotton-seed meal. 

No. 14— C. L. Gabrilson, New Hampton, la. Jersey and 
Short-horn cows; average weight, 1,000 lbs.; annual yield of 
milk, 4,200 lbs.; annual yield of butter, 200 lbs.; percentage 
of fat in milk, 4.9. Ration — 50 lbs. corn silage, 5 lbs. hay, 5 
lbs. corn-fodder, 1 lb. oat straw, 1 lb. barley sti^aw, 5 lbs. ear- 
corn, 2J lbs. ground oats and barley. 

No. 24 — W. J. Boynton, Rochester, Minn. Holstein- 
Friesian cows; average weight, 1,400 lbs.; annual yield of 



54 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

milk, 10,000 lbs.; percentage of fat in milk, 3.6. Ration— 50 
lbs. corn silage, 8 lbs. hay, 3 lbs. bran, 2 lbs. shorts, 3 lbs. 
ground rye and oats, 2 lbs. barley. 

No. 29— W. X). Baker, Quincy, N. H. Does not namebreed; 
average weight of cows, 900 lbs.; annual yield of milk, 5,500 
lbs.; annual yield of butter, 312 lbs. Rations— (a) 10 lbs. clover 
and witch grass hay, 10 lbs. corn-stover, 5 lbs. unthreshed 
barley, 2 lbs. corn-and-cob meal, 2 lbs. shorts, 2 lbs. cotton- 
seed meal. (6) 11.7 lbs. clover and witch grass hay, 3.3 lbs. 
oat straw, 10 lbs. meadow hay, 2 lbs. shorts, 2 lbs. corn-and- 
cob meal, 1 lb. ground peas, 1 lb. oats, 1 lb. barley, (c) 10 
lbs. meadow hay, 10 lbs. corn-stover, 5 lbs. pea straw, 2 lbs. 
middlings, H lbs. gluten-meal, H lbs. cotton-seed meal, 2 lbs. 
corn-and-cob meal, [d] 10 lbs. clover and witch grass hay, 10 
lbs. meadow hay, 5 lbs. pea straw, 2 lbs. shorts, 1 lb. gluten- 
meal, 1 lb. cotton-seed meal, 2 lbs. corn-and-cob meal 

No. 34 — H. M. Cattrell, Superintendent EUerslie Stock 
Farm, Rhinecliff, N. Y. Guernsey cows; average weight of 
cows, 1,000 lbs.; annual yield of milk, 6,120 lbs.; percentage 
of fat in milk, 5.3. Ration— 25 lbs. corn silage, 7 lbs. mixed 
hay, 4 lbs. corn-meal, 5 lbs. bran, i lb. oil-meal, i lb. cotton- 
seed meal. 

No. 45— Geo. W. Sisson. Jr., Potsdam, N. Y. Jerseys; 
average weight, 800 lbs.; annual yield of milk, 5,000 lbs.; an- 
nual yield of butter, 300 lbs.; percentage of fat in milk. 5.2. 
Ration— 30 lbs. corn silage, 12 lbs. clover hay, 8 lbs. wheat 
middlings, 1 lb. oil-meal. 

No. 46— Smiths & Powell Co., Syracuse, N. Y. Holstein- 
Friesians; average weight of cows, 1,200 lbs.; annual yield of 
milk, 12,000 lbs. Ration— 40 lbs. corn silage, 15 lbs. hay. 9 
lbs. wheat bran, 4i lbs. germ-meal, 1 lb. oats, I lb. wheat, 1 
lb. barley, 1 lb. corn, i lb. linseed-meal. 

No. 49— Munzo Wilcox, Milford, N. Y. Devons and na- 
tives; average weight, 785 lbs.; annual yield of milk. 9,200 
lbs.; annual yield of butter, 373 lbs. Ration— 12 lbs. timothy 
hay, 1 lb. bran, 1 lb. middlings, 2 lbs. corn-meal. 2 lbs. cotton- 
seed meal, 40 lbs. skim-milk. 



FEED AND MANAGEMENT. 55 

No. 50— A. Doncourt, Manager The Old Brick Farm, Ros- 
lyn, N, Y. Guernseys; average weight, 1,000 lbs.; annual 
yield of milk, 7,300 lbs.; annual yield of butter, 497 lbs.; per- 
centage of fat in milk, 5.7. Ration — 42 lbs. corn silage, 2i 
lbs. clover hay, 2i lbs. timothy hay, 8 lbs. corn-and-cob meal, 
14 lbs. dried brewers' grains. 

No. 55— John Gould, Aurora, Ohio. Grades and natives; 
average weight, 1,000 lbs.; annual yield of milk, 5,900 lbs.; 
percentage of fat in milk, 4.2. Ration — 50 lbs. corn silage, 
8 lbs. clover hay, 5 lbs. "seconds." 

No. 61— John McClintock, Meadville, Pa. Jerseys; aver- 
age weight, 900 lbs.; annual yield of milk, 5,565 lbs.; annual 
yield of butter, 370 lbs. Ration — 24ilbs. corn-fodder, 5.1 lbs. 
bran, 5.1 lbs. corn-meal, 3 lbs. cotton-seed meal, 2 lbs. oil- 
meal. 

No, 71 — L. S. Drew, Burlington, Vt. Ayrshires; average 
weight, 1,000 lbs. ; annual yield of milk, 5,540 lbs. ; percentage 
of fat in milk, 4.3. Ration — 20 lbs. corn silage, 14 lbs. hay, 

3 lbs. bran, 2 lbs. gluten-meal. 

No. 74— C. M. Winslow, Brandon, Vt. Ayrshires; average 
weight, 1,000 lbs.; annual yield of milk, 6,187 lbs.; percent- 
age of fat in milk, 4.25. Ration — 30 lbs. hay, 1.8 lbs. wheat 
bran, .9 lb. wheat middlings. 

No. 72 — L. C. Fisher, 'Cabot, Vt. Jerseys; average weight, 
900 lbs. ; annual yield of butter, 404 lbs. Ration — 30 lbs. corn 
silage, 10 lbs, hay, 4.2 lbs. corn-meal, 4.2 lbs. bran, .8 lb. lin- 
seed-meal. 

No. 79 — C. P. Goodrich, Fort Atkinson, Wis. Grade Jer- 
seys; average weight, 900 lbs.; annual yield of milk, 5,500 
lbs.; annual yield of butter, 320 lbs.; percentage of fat in 
milk, 5.25. Ration — 32 lbs, corn silage, 5 lbs. clover hay, 5 
lbs. cornstalks, 8 lbs. bran, 2 lbs. cotton-seed meal, 2 lbs. oat 
straw. 

No. 85— A. X. Hyatt, Sheboygan Falls, Wis. Mostly Short- 
horns; average weight, 1,200 lbs.; annual yield of milk, 8,000 
lbs.; percentage of fat in milk, 4.1. Ration — 25 lbs. roots, 8 
lbs. oatmeal, 3 lbs. oil-meal, 15 lbs. hay, 10 lbs. corn-fodder, 

4 lbs. oat straw. 



56 



AMERICAN DAIRYING. 



No. 92 — Herman Bollert, Canada. Holstein-Friesians; 
average weight, 1,300 lbs.; annual yield of milk, 10,000 lbs. ; 
percentage of fat in milk, 4. Ration — 10 lbs. corn silage, 5 
lbs. hay, 5 lbs. straw, 4i lbs. bran, 4i lbs. oats. 

No. 100 — R. Robertson, Howick, Quebec. Ayrshires. 
average weight, 1,000 lbs.; annual yield of milk, 8,000 lbs.: 
annual yield of butter, 360 lbs.; percentage of fat in milk, 4. 
Ration — 40 lbs. corn silage, 7i lbs. clover hay, 3 lbs. straw, 
li lbs. oats, li lbs. barley, H lbs. pea- meal, 3 lbs. wheat bran, 
1 lb. cotton-seed meal. 



TABLE OP 


NUTRIENTS IN TWENTY-FOUR RATIONS. 






DIGESTIBLE 


MATTER. 






Dry 










Nutritive 


No. 










matter. 


Protein. 


Carbo- 
hydrates. 


Fat. 


Total. 


ratio. 


1 


31.09 


2.70 


15.78 


.80 


19. 2S 


1: 6.5 


5 


25.70 


2.69 


13.96 


.97 


17.62 


1 


: 6. 


6 


22. Od 


2.37 


12.06 


.75 


15.18 


1 


: 5.8 


11 


26.08 


3.24 


12.94 


1.07 


17.23 


1 


: 4.7 


14 


24.77 


1.34 


15.01 


.76 


17.11 


1 


12.8 


24 


19.09 


1.40 


11.10 


.48 


12.98 


1 


: 8.7 


29a 


25.50 


2 39 


14.37 


.70 


17.46 


1 


6.7 


296 


28.97 


1.88 


15.47 


.53 


17.88 


1 


: 8.8 


29c 


26.12 


2.24 


13.65 


.65 


16.54 


1 


: 6.7 


29c^ 


28.86 


2.84 


13.68 


.82 


17.34 


1 


: 5.5 


34 


19.98 


1.81 


11.46 


.66 


J3.93 


1 


7.1 


45 


28 . 65 


2.87 


14.73 


.88 


18.48 


1 


5.8 


46 


29.16 


2.41 


16.98 


.85 


20.24 


1 


7.8 


49 


25.73 


3.50 


14.05 


1.12 


18.67 


1 


4.7 


50 


31.30 


3.37 


16.31 


1.31 


20.99 


1 


5.7 


55 


20.26 


1.53 


10.95 


.63 


13.11 


1 


8.1 


61 


26.52 


2.53 


15.74 


.90 


19.17 


1 


7 . 


7] 


20.20 


1.64 


11.09 


.48 


13.21 


1 


7.4 


74 


26.06 


1.42 


14.02 


.38 


15.82 


1: 


10.5 


72 


24.23 


1 86 


14.03 


.75 


16.64 


1. 


8.4 


79 


27.24 


2.86 


13.80 


.92 


17.58 


1: 


5.5 


85 


26.90 


2.11 


14.43 


.70 


17.24 


1: 


7.6 


92 


19.70 


1.36 


10 60 


.53 


12.49 


1: 


8.7 


J 00 


22.^.6 


2.08 


12.17 


.71 


14.96 


1: 


6.6 



The foregoing table gives the nutrients in the 
twenty-four rations selected from the 100 iu 



FEED AND MANAGEMENT. '0 i 

the WLscoiisin bulletin. The numbers in this 
table correspond to the numbers in connection 
with the owners' names and name of breed, 
and the table is quite interesting to a person 
that wishes to study the feeding question. 

Dehorning. — I have deliberated considerably 
about the question of dehorning. It has been 
so much discussed in the agricultural and dairy 
papers that it seems almost an old story, but I 
have decided to give a little of my experience. 
I waited and read and watched for several 
years, dehorning only the ugly cows, before I 
became thoroughly convinced that it was best 
to dehorn my whole herd. I now have no cat- 
tle with horns except my registered Jerseys. 
One reason that I leave their horns is to avoid 
any possibility of getting them mixed with my 
grades. I employed a man to dehorn my cows 
that had dehorned over five thousand head, and 
he did a good job for me. It would require an 
expert to detect that they ever had horns. He 
did the work with a saw and cut a little below 
the skin, setting the saw to cut a little circular 
in direction. Cutting below the skin caused 
some bleeding, but he pulled out the little blood 
vessels with a pair of small forceps, which 
made the bleeding cease. I think the fright 
caused by making the cows fast for the opera- 
tion gave them more suffering than the act of 
removing the horns. As fast as dehorned they 



58 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

were turned into the pasture and they went to 
feeding in a short time as if nothing had hap- 
pened. I was very much surprised, and very 
agreeably so, at the apparent indifference of 
the cows to the effect of the operation. It 
caused a very perceptible change in my cows. 
They soon learned that they could not injure, 
each other and ceased trying. With the loss of 
fear of each other came a loss of fear of their 
attendants, or at least it appeared so to me. 
There was a change in the herd that was a 
pleasant surprise to me. I say frankly that I 
am glad I had my herd dehorned. The shrink- 
age in milk was very small — no more in fact 
than I should have expected from having them 
out of the pasture as long as they were. It 
was very satisfactory to me in all points and 
caused me to wish I had had them dehorned 
earlier. 

I now kill the horns of my calves by the 
use of caustic potash. This is a very simple 
matter. We cut the hair from around the 
horns, or where they are to grow, and then wet 
the button and rub the caustic potash on it. 
Get the potash in sticks and wrap it in paper 
or cloth to prevent its eating the hands. This 
causes the calf no more pain than a blister of 
the same size. In fact that is just what it is. 

'Effects of Exposure. — In the winter of 1892 
the Indiana Experiment Station made a very 



FEED AND MANAGEMENT. 59 

valuable experiment to show the effect of ex- 
posure on milch cows. I clip the following 
from that station's "Bulletin No. 47": 

The following points of importance are brought out in the 
bulletin: 

1. That cows exposed during the day to the inclemency of 
winter weather ate more food than those given the shelter 
of a comfortable barn. 

2. That cows thus exposed gave on an average less milk 
per day than those not so exposed, and much less milk as a 
total, during the experiment, which extended over forty^ 
eight days in January, February, and March. 

3. That the cows which were exposed to the weather dur- 
ing this experiment lost in weight, while those given barn 
shelter gained in weight. 

4. That there is a dififerenc3 of $12.79 in favor of shelter 
for cows in winter. 

Some of the interesting details of this experi- 
ment are herewith quoted: 

Grouped by lots each lot ate the following amount of food: 

Lot I— lbs. Lot II— lbs. 

Clover hay eaten 1996.2 1483.8 

Corn-meal 1230.0 1627.0 

Bran .' 1168.5 1536.7 

Total 4403.7 4647.5 

Lot II, the exposed one, ate 243.8 lbs. more food than lot 
I, but less hay and much more grain, consuming 388 lbs. 
more of corn-meal and 368.2 lbs. more of bran. The differ- 
ence in the cost cf the total amounts of food eaten has an 
important bearing on the relationship of expense and in- 
come. 

The cost of the food eaten is based on current market 
prices in Lafayette at the time of the experiment. Clover 
hay is quoted at $8 per ton, corn-meal at $1 per 100 lbs., 
and bran at 65 cents per 100 lbs. The cost of labor was 
no greater for lot I than for lot II, if it was as great, and is 
not included in the discussion of the experiment. 



60 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

Amount and cost of food consumed: 

Lot L Lot II. 

1996.2 lbs. clover hay at $8 per ton $7.98 

1239.0 lbs. corn-meal at $1 per 100 lbs 12.39 

1168.5 lbs. bran -at 65 cents per 100 lbs 7.60 

Total cost $27.97 

1483.8 lbs. clover hay at $8 per ton $5.94 

1627.0 lbs. corn-meal at $1 per 100 lbs 16.27 

1536.7 lbs. bran at 65 cents per 100 lbs 9.99 

Total cost $32.20 

Balance in favor of lot I $4.23 

$32.20 $32.20 

So far as cost of food eaten is concerned the sheltered lot 
makes the best showing- by $4.23. This experiment, how- 
ever, was undertaken on milch cows to note the effect of the 
conditions of keeping on the milk yield. 

Considering this experiment from the financial standpoint, 
including cost of food eaten, weight of milk secured, and ani- 
mal weight lost or gained, we get the following results in 
favor of the sheltered lot: 

Saving in cost of feed eaten $4.23 

Value of difference in milk secured (161.1 lbs. at 15 cents 

a gallon) 2.79 

Value of 231 lbs. flesh gain at 2i cents a pound 5.77 

Amount saved by sheltering three cows 48 days 12.79 

Amount saved by sheltering one cow 48 days 4.26 

Prof. C. S. Phimb, Director of the ludiaua 
Agricultural Experiment Station, who made 
this experiment, offers the following observa- 
tions: 

A reasonable amount of exercise should be given farm 
animals, and pure air ought to be available at all times, but 
no animal should be exposed to weather conditions that in- 
volve suffering, neither ought farmers to expose stock in 
such a manner as to cause them financial loss. Beef cattle 
with thick, mellow hides and heavy coats of fine hair may be 
exposed to outdoor conditions that would cause thin-skinned 



FEED AND MANAGEMENT. 61 

milch cows to suffer and show the injurious effect in the pail 
and feed account. Dairy cows are more sensitive in temper- 
ament and require warmer winter quarters as a rule than do 
beef cattle. 



CHAPTER III. 



CARE OF DAIRY UTENSILS. 

Milk pails should always be of tin. When 
purchasing tinware of any kind have your 
tinner solder around all rims and open joints 
where dirt can accumulate. The cost of this 
will be saved many times over in the labor re- 
quired to wash them. I never had sufficient 
patience to fool away my time trying to get 
a dishcloth into every corner and around the 
rims and ears of pails when I knew that a few 
cents spent at the tinshop would put the tin- 
ware in such shape tliat the dishcloth would 
reach all parts and time did not need to be 
taken digging dirt out of holes that need 
not l:>e. 

Clean all utensils as soon as possible after 
using them. The longer they remain without 
being cleaned the more time will be required 
to do the work. 

Washing tinware. — When washing tinware 
about the dairy alwaj^s use first cool or tepid 
water, as hot water applied to milk vessels 
cooks the milk onto the tin and o'ives them an 



CARE OF DAIRY UTENSILS. 63 

appearance that you will not take pride in 
showing. After they are washed in tepid or 
cold water, wash with hot water, then scald 
with boiling water or steam if it is available. 
When steam is used there is no guesswork 
about it, as it reaches all parts and does thor- 
ough work. When hot water is used there is 
often too much guesswork about the tempera- 
ture. 

After the scalding the vessels should be put 
in the sun to dry and air. When thoroughly 
scalded there is sufficient heat to cause the 
dishes or vessels to dry without wiping. Have 
a place for all the tin and woodenware in the 
sun for a time after cleaning and scalding it. 
^N'ever put the covers on tin vessels after scald- 
ing them, neither will it answer to put them in 
a position that will prevent a circulation of air. 
Dead air is far from sweet-smelling. 

Churn and. worker. — The churn and butter- 
worker and all other wooden utensils should be 
first washed in hot water, then scalded with 
boiling water or steam. Wooden utensils must 
not be left in the sun long enough to cause 
them to warp or crack. 

Preparing wooden utensils. — Before usiug 
the churn and all other woodenware it should 
be scalded and then thoroughly cooled. Scald- 
iug wooden utensils and then thoroughly cool- 
ing with cold water will prevent the butter 



64 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

sticking to them. When the bntter sticks to a 
wooden vessel or utensil it is positive proof 
that it has not been properly prepared before 
using, and the only way is to do the work over 
in a proper manner. 

Return milk in barrels. — Great care is nec- 
essary in cleansing cans that are used in draw- 
ing milk to a creamery, especially if skim-milk 
or whey is returned in them. The best way is 
to take the milk back to the farm in barrels 
and have the cans washed at the creamery be- 
fore being returned to the patrons. 

But in many cases this is not practicable, as 
the milk comes in loads and the skim-milk 
must go back in the cans, if it is taken, which 
it surely should be. These cans should be 
treated as any other milk vessel, but more care 
is necessary, as in many cases the milk has be- 
come sour before reaching home and adheres 
to the can. A brush is an excellent tool to use 
for this work, as it will get at the corners much 
better than a dishcloth. Lack of care in this 
line soon gives foul cans and bad milk. All 
milk vessels must be kept sweet and clean or 
there will be serious trouble in a very short 
time. 



CHAPTER IV. 



MILKmG. 

Milking is a trade. Comparatively few dairy- 
men realize the importance of it, or the neces- 
sity for kindness, neatness, system and regu- 
larity and of securing all of the milk. 

The cow must be kindly treated at all times 
and in all places. It will not answer to bring 
her from pasture on a run with a dog behind 
her, and if she in her excitement gets into the 
wrong stall don't put her out with a blow from 
a whip or the boot. The owner pays for this 
immediately in the quantity and quality of the 
milk from the next milking. Any person who 
doubts this should use a scale and the Babcock 
test and satisfy himself. The cows should not 
fear the person who cares for them. There is 
a chance for the person to improve so long as 
this is the case. The feeling between the cows 
and the person who cares for and milks them 
should be such that when such person goes 
among them either in the barn or in the yard 
or pasture the cows will not only not care to 
move away from the person but will actually 

5 (65) 



66 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

appear to enjoy the company of the one who 
cares for them. When this is the situation 
there need be no fear so far as kindness is con- 
cerned. 

Cleanliness. — Tiie cows must be kept clean in 
the stable and also out of it, so far as is prac- 
tical, but there are times in wet seasons that 
it is impractical in some pastures to prevent 
the cows getting their teats and udders muddy. 
When this is the case they should be washed 
when put into the stable. This is the best way 
I have found to remove the mud or filth, which 
must be done before milking. My practice was 
to furnish each milker a pail for water and re- 
quire them to wash their cows' udders before 
commencing to milk if they needed to be 
washed. By the time the milker was through 
washing the first washed would be dry and 
ready to milk. This is the quickest and best 
way I have found to accomplish this object. 

Regularity. — Each cow should have her reg- 
ular stall, be milked by the same milker, and 
at regular hours, night and morning. It pays 
just as well to systematize with the cows as it 
does in any business. A business man that is 
irregular about his business loses by it. We 
can all call to mind instances to prove this, and 
it is just as true and more with the cows, as the 
business man may not lose every time he fails 
to open his store until an hour late, but every 



MILKING. 67 

time the cows are milked an hour late or early 
there is sure to be a loss. 

There must be regularity in feeding, water- 
ing, salting, and in all work connected with the 
cow. Never allow promiscuous milking. It is 
best to milk in the stable in winter and sum- 
mer. The milkers will suffer no more from 
heat there than in the yard if the stable is 
properly ventilated and they commence at the 
right end of their row of cows, so the animals 
can be turned out as fast as milked. There 
will then be no cow back of them to help give 
them a sweat. 

Cause for kicking. — A cow never kicks with- 
out cause. She is either hurt or frightened 
when she kicks. An instance comes to my 
mind now that illustrates this point. Several 
years ago, when living on my farm, I was one 
day in De Kalb and the Maj^or spoke to me 
about his cow. He had an excellent one and 
had talked with me about her frequently be- 
fore. At this particular time he was in trouble 
with her. He said she had contracted a habit 
of kicking and he could do nothing with her 
and thought he would be compelled to sell her. 
I told him there must be a cause, but he said 
he could find none. I insisted there must be 
some good cause for it and it should be dis- 
covered, and talked with him for some time 
about his cow and her surroundings. I asked 



68 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

him if her teats were not chapped, and he said 
not. I told him to get some linseed oil and 
apply a little after milking to her teats. He 
did so, and' the next time I saw him he told me 
his cow was all right. The oil had performed 
a cure and helped him to discover what the 
cause of the trouble was. This was during 
August when the flies were troublesome, and 
the cow to get rid of the flies had been in the 
habit of getting into a pond of water in the 
pasture, where she kept her teats wet flghting 
the flies, and caused them to chap, but not 
enough so the owner who milked her had dis- 
covered it until they commenced to heal, when 
he discovered the trouble. 

When, you have a kicking cow study the case 
and learn the cause, and if you cannot learn 
and remove the cause you should remove the 
cow, as a kicking cow is too severe a test on the 
milker's patience and the effect is not good in 
the stable, as it affects the whole surrounding 
atmosphere. 

Effect of disturbances, — When I first began 
to apply the Babcock test to separate herds and 
individual cows I had some experience that was 
surprising and instructive. I have traced a low 
daily test of herd milk to the cattle breaking 
out of their pasture and being chased by men 
on horseback until they were excited and wor- 
ried. 



MILKING. 69 

Cows need special care.— There is no farm 
animal that needs more care than the cow. It 
will not answer to give her the same treatment 
that you do a fat steer. She is much more sen- 
sitive to cold, as she has not (if she is a dairy 
cow) an inch or two of fat all over her body to 
protect her vitals from the cold. The steer 
will be comfortable in a well-bedded dry shed 
in cold weather, when the cow would suffer and 
her flow of milk decrease. It does me good to 
visit a herd of cows and see the herdsman go 
among them with a kind word and the cows 
approach him as though they had an affection 
for him. On the other hand when I see a herds- 
man go among the cows with a loud voice and 
every cow begins to get away from him I think 
that man is out of place, and he should ])e put 
to some work that he is fitted to do — if it can 
be discovered what that is. 

DifFerence in milkers. — There is a great 
difference in milkers. This many dairymen 
have learned and many more have not, judg- 
ing from the way they act. I have had some 
milkers that would get enough more from 
fifteen cows in one year than other milkers I 
had at the same time to pay their salaries for 
the year. Perhaps some may not believe this, 
but it is not guesswork. It is a matter of cal- 
culation after weighing the milk from the vari- 
ous milkers' cows periodically for a term of 



70 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

months. The difference in milkers in this re- 
spect is surprising. There are many milkers 
whom the owner of the cows cannot afford to 
have in his' employ at any price. 

I test all my cows periodically, and at the 
same time I test the milkers. This takes no 
extra time, only in the matter of looking it up, 
as each milker has his regular cows to milk, 
and at the end of the season it can very readily 
be calculated how each milker has made his 
cows ''hold out" (as we term it) with their 
milk. The following figures are from my 
books having the record of the work done dur- 
ing the winter of 1892-'93: 

Milker No. 1, Dec. 17, 1892, cows gave 356 
lbs.; Feb. 28, 1893, 258 lbs. 

Milker No. 2, Dec. 17, 1892, cows gave 298 
lbs.; Feb. 28, 1893, 244 lbs. 

Milker No. 3, Dec. 17, 1892, cows gave 304 
lbs.; Feb. 28, 1893, 204 lbs. 

During this time the cows of No. 1 shrank 
98 lbs., No 2's cows shrank 54 lbs., and No. 8's 
cows 100 lbs. The per cent of shrinkage was: 
No. 1, 27 per cent; No. 2, 18 per cent; No. 8, 
32 per cent. The shrinkage per cow from Dec. 
17 to Feb. 28 was for No. 1, 7 lbs.; No. 2, 5 lbs., 
and No. 3, ^ lbs. 

The milkers in the future will have their rec- 
ord and will secure employment on it. It will 



MILKING. 71 

require time for this plan to work its way to the 
front, but it is sure to develop. 

Milking for prizes. — After studying over 
this milking question for two years trying to 
devise some plan by which I could interest my 
milkers in their work, thereby securing better 
service, I decided to offer prizes to be competed 
for. I have five milkers and I offered three 
prizes to be awarded on the percentage of 
shrinkage for a term of months. The first 
prize was $10, the second $5 and the third 
$2.50. My milkers were greatly interested in 
this work during the whole time of the con- 
test and the results showed careful work. 

One milker who milked 12 cows had a varia- 
tion from highest to lowest daily weight of 7 
lbs. during a week. Another milker who had 
14 cows to milk had as low a variation as 7^ 
lbs. in the daily milk of his cows in a week. 
My total milk, which reached 1,850 lbs. daily, 
varied less than some of the patrons who had 
250 to 300 lbs. daily. This was the result of 
careful, systematic work and work that pays. 
The young man who won the first prize had a 
shrinkage of 1.85 lbs. per cow in three months. 
The winner of the second prize made a shrink- 
age of 2 lbs. per cow, and the third prize win- 
ner made a shrinkage of 2.6 lbs. per cow for 
the three months. These shrinkages figured to 
percentages are as follows: First prize, .074; 



72 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

second prize, .089, and third prize, .095. This 
work, when compared with the work of the 
previous winter for the same months and under 
the same conditions as nearly as possible, is in- 
teresting to say the least. Some of the work 
of the previous winters was alarming, though 
it was doubtless as good as the average milk- 
ing. I have the record of one milker for three 
months in 1892 and 1893, also in 1893 and 1894. 
In the first winter his percentage of shrinkage 
for the three months was 27|^ per cent, and the 
following winter when competing for a prize 
his shrinkage was 9^ per cent for the same 
months. When not competing for a prize his 
shrinkage was 7 lbs. per cow in three months; 
when competing it was 2.6 lbs. — a difference of 
4.4 lbs. 

The difference between the poorest work of 
the winters of 1892 and 1893 and the best work 
of 1893 and 1894 rolls up in a way to frighten 
me and make me doubt my own figures. The 
poorest work shows a shrinkage of 9^ lbs. per 
cow in three months, and the best work shows 
a shrinkage of 1.88 lbs. per cow for the same 
length of time. This difference is 7.62 lbs. per 
cow daily. I think it fair to suppose that the 
average difference of shrinkage for the three 
months would be one-half as much as it was at 
the end of the three months. This would be 
3.81 lbs. per day for the 90 days, or 343 lbs. 



MILKING. 73 

!N^ow we will suppose the shrinkage after the 
three months is the same in both cases, and we 
have 200 days at 7.62 lbs., or 1,524 lbs. + 343 
lbs.=l,867 lbs. per cow, and for fifteen cows 
28,005 lbs. of milk, which valued at $1 per 100 
lbs. would amount to $280.05. I do not think 
this comparison is an exaggeration. I have 
supposed that the shrinkage in both cases was 
alike after the three months, w^iich is not fair 
to the best milker, as it is more than probable 
that the shrinkage of the poor milker kept on 
increasing over the good milker and that his 
cows were dried a month earlier than were the 
cows of the good milker. 

I had a plain talk with my milkers when the 
prize work commenced, telling them of tlie 
need of kindness, care and regularity of time 
in milking; also the necessity of securing all of 
the milk. I told them that if at any time the 
totals of milk at the barn and the creamery 
did not agree each milker would be furnished 
with separate cans and would be expected to 
make his milk at the barn and creamery com- 
pare, and that if at any time I learned of any 
man's unfair work to get an advantage I should 
exclude him from the competition. I am now 
pleased to be al)le to say that nothing of the 
kind was discovered. 

How to milk. — The milkers should do their 
talking before they begin to milk and then at- 



74 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

tend strictly to their milking, doing the work 
as fast as they practically can, being careful 
not to hurt the cow in any way and particular 
to milk the cows clean. If the cow is not 
milked clean the richest part of the milk is 
left, and this kind of milking will cause the 
cow to shrink her milk. This point must be 
looked after carefully. 

Always milk with dry hands. Do not dip 
your fingers in the milk or allow it to be done. 
A person can milk better with dry hands as 
soon as he becomes accustomed to doing so. I 
was taught to milk with wet hands but broke 
myself of the bad habit. Dipping the fingers 
in the milk or froth is an uncleanly habit. 
Don't do it. 

The writer has milked fifteen to twenty cows 
regularly for months together, and once milked 
thirty-five cows for several days, the cause be- 
ing a strike of milkers. The whole bunch of 
strikers got left and I got better ones as fast as 
I found them. 

Experiment station work. — The Wisconsin 
Station (Report 1889, page 44) reported experi- 
ments on the effect of change of milker, rapid- 
ity of milking, manner of milking, milking 
tubes vs. hand-milking, and milking one teat 
at a time. Differences were noticed between 
good milkers which were attributed to the 
manner of milking, since the cows were all 



MILKING. /O 

milked cliy. The greatest effect was always 
noticed at the first milking after a change of 
milker, and with some cows this was more 
marked than with others. 

In comparison of milking fast and slow, cows 
were milked in from three to four minutes and 
in double that time. The yield of milk seemed 
to be little affected, but in every case richer 
milk was given when the cows were milked 
fast^ and this was most marked with cows giv- 
ing the most milk. On an average from the 
whole lot of cows there was a gain of 11.73 per 
cent in the total yield of fat from fast milking. 
This difference in quality, however, seemed to 
decrease gradually, though not to disappear 
altogether. 

When cows were milked one teat at a time 
there was a decided difference in the. composi- 
tion of the milk from the different teats. The 
milk richest in fat was invariably obtained 
from the teat milked second, that milked first 
coming next in richness, that milked third fol- 
lowing, and that milked fourth the poorest. If 
the order in which the teats were milked was 
changed, the order of richness also changed so 
as to conform to the above rule, indicating that 
the richness of the milk from separate teats 
was due to the order of milking rather than to 
any characteristic differences in the parts of 
the udder. With this manner of milking the 



76 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

average percentage of fat in the milk from all 
four teats was considerably below that with 
ordinary milking. 

Comparisons of milking by hand and with 
tubes were, as a rule, unfavorable to the milk- 
ing tubes. On the whole the yield was slightly 
less with tubes than with hand milking and the 
quality of the milk was poorer, although there 
wQre individual exceptions to this rule. The 
average for the eight cows tested showed a 
total less with tubes of 6.5 lbs. of milk and 
2.718 lbs. of fat per day. 

As to the frequency of milking, tests made at 
the New Hampshire Station of milking hourly 
and at the Vermont Station of milking two and 
three times a day, indicated that while there 
was a gain in some cases from frequent milk- 
ing this was only temporary and was not ap- 
parent after two or three days. There was 
often a decrease in both yield and composition 
when frequent milking was continued. The 
Vermont Station found that in these fluctua- 
tions of quality the fat only was affected, the 
casein, sugar and ash remaining practically 
constant. 

Quality of first and last milk drawn.— The 
''Handbook of Experiment Station Work,'' pub- 
lished by the United States Department of 
Agriculture, gives the results of many interest- 
ing and instructive experiments in milking 



MILKING. 77 

made by the different experiment stations. It 
is stated that the milk from the tirst portion of 
any single milking is relatively poor and in- 
creases in richness to the strippings, which are 
relatively very rich. Thns the New York Sta- 
tion found that in the case of five cows the 
first pint of milk contained only .3 per cent of 
fat while the last pint contained 6.85 per cent 
and the mixed milk from the whole milking 
averaged 2.55 per cent. In every instance the 
first half contained only from one-third to one- 
half as much fat as the last half. Similar re- 
sults are reported in Connecticut, also in Indi- 
ana and New Hampshire. 

Daily variation. — The milk of the same cow 
differs both in composition and in yield from 
day to day. Babcock states that yield may 
vary by 15 per cent and the amount of fat by 
as much as 50 per cent. 

Four cows tested at the Wisconsin Station 
(Report 1889, page 42) showed an average daily 
variation of from 1.18 to 1.8 lbs. of niilk^ and 
the yield of fat per day fluctuated about 8 per 
cent. In connection with this work Dr. Bab- 
cock says (Wisconsin Report 1889, page 43) : 

Our experimental work during the past year has directed 
attention especially to these variations and has served to in- 
dicate some causes for them which have not been given 
much prominence by writers upon dairy matters. It is gen- 
erally considered when the farmer has supplied a sufficient 
amount of proper food and has provided good shelter and 



78 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

care for his cows, that he has done all that it is possible for 
him to do in order to secure an abundant yield of rich milk 
and the cow is usually held responsible for any failure. 

All of these conditions are of course essential for the best 
results, but the immediate conditions under which the milk- 
ing is done appear to have almost as much influence upon the 
yield and quality of milk as any other factor. The manner 
of milking-, the frequency with which it is done and the time 
occupied in doing it may, I believe, have more influence with 
many cows upon the yield and quality of milk than the kind 
of food, so long as sufficient food is supplied. 

All of our experimental work indicates that temporary 
conditions existing only at the time of milking may very 
materially alfect both the yield and quality of the milk pro- 
duced. This can be most easily explained by assuming that 
the milk glands are most active at this time and that the 
quality of the secretion depends on this activity. It seems 
probable that the action of the milk glands is greatly modi- 
fied by the nervous condition of the animal at the time of 
milking as well as by the stimulus derived from manipula- 
tion of the teats and udder. 

This experiment also brought out the fact that the man- 
ner of milking also affects the composition of the milk. It 
was found that cows which ordinarily gave milk with 4 and 
5 per cent of fat respectively, gave milk with only 2.7 and 
3.92 per cent respectively when milked one teat at a time. 
The milk was richer in fat when milked rapidly (three to 
four minutes) than when milked slowly (double that time), 
though the yield seemed not to be affected, the fat being as 
a general rule more sensitive to such changes than the other 
ingredients or the total yield of milk. 

Morning's and night's milk. — There is at 
times a marked difference in the per cent of fat 
contained in the morning's and night's milk. 
Some dairy writers have claimed that one was 
the richest in fat and some that the other was. 
My experience in testing my own herd, also in 



MILKING. 79 

doing "detective" work at our creameries, has 
convinced me that the time between milkings 
is the greatest cause of this difference. I know 
that some farmers have been suspected of being 
dishonest with their milk wlien in fact they 
were the reverse of it. Being hard-working 
men and up at 4 o'clock in the morning to milk 
and making long days in the field caused the 
milking to be done as late as 8 o'clock in the 
evening, thus making the time from morning 
to night's milking sixteen hours, and the time 
from night's to morning's milking eight hours. 
When these conditions exist the morning's 
milk will contain the largest per cent of fat. 
In extreme cases the night's milk will be so 
much poorer in fat than the morning's that it 
is pretty strong circumstantial evidence that 
there is something wrong about the night's 
milk, or at least that was the fact before the 
introduction of the Babcock test, l^ow we 
have light on this subject and many others. 

At the Mississippi Station ('' Bulletin 13") it 
was found that when cows were milked at be- 
tween 5:30 and 7 in the morning and between 
3:30 and 5 in the afternoon it required on an 
average 18.1 lbs. of the morning's milk and 13.5 
lbs. of the night's milk to make a pound of 
butter. In this case the hours of milking made 
the time from morning to night ten hours and 
the time from night to morning fourteen hours. 



80 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

Here the difference in time (14 — 10=-4-^lO=.4) 
was .4 per cent and the difference in the pounds 
of milk (18.1— 13.5^=4.6^13.5=.34) required to 
make a pound of butter was .34 per cent. 

The facts brought out by the work of our ex- 
periment stations on milking should cause 
dairymen who are not giving thought to this 
question to commence thinking seriously and 
immediately. Who can tell us how many cows 
that are now unprofitable could be made profit- 
able by a change of milkers or by more intelli- 
gent work without a change ? 



CHAPTER V. 



MILK FROM COW TO CREAM VAT 




As soon as a 
cow is milked 
strain the milk 
through a wire 
strainer into a can 
which is to be 
used to convey 
the milk to the 
milk-house or the 
room where it is 
to be set to raise 
the cream or put 
through the sepa- 
rator to separate 
the cream. There 
it should be strained through a cloth strainer. 

Plannel strainers. — When I made butter at 
my farm I used woolen strainers for this pur- 
pose. They do thorough work, but require con- 
siderable care to prevent their thickening or 
fulling so the milk mil not run through them. 
Cotton strainers will do more thorough work 

6 (81) 



COMMON TIN Mir.K PAIL. 



82 



AMERICAN DAIRYING. 



than a wire strainer, and I prefer them in the 
milk-room. When the shallow-pan system is 




lUON-CLAD TIN MILK PAIL. 



used the milk should be set as fast as is prac- 
ticable after it is strained, as the cream rises 
the fastest while the milk is cooling and the 




CURTIS WIUE-CLOTJ5 STRAINER. 



sooner set after milking the more benefit we 
get from the cooling process. 



MILK FROM COW TO CREAM VAT. 83 

Temperature of room.— The temperature of 
the room in which the milk is set should be 60 
to 65 deg., so that the milk shall be sour but 
not thickened, except at the bottom of the pans, 
when it is to be skimmed. I believe the most 
thorough creaming is secured when the milk 
sets 36 hours to reach this proper stage for 
skimming. I have sometimes in the winter 
time allowed it to set 48 hours, and warmed 
the milk at the end of 12 hours and warmed 
the second time at the end of 24 hours. 

Repeated cooling gives thorough creaming. 
In this way we repeat the cooling pi-ocess and 
secure very thorough ereaming — the most per- 
fect of any plan except the centrifugal sepa- 
rator. I used large shallow pans holding 500 
lbs. of milk, and these pans were surrounded 
by a water pan for heating and cooling the 
milk. This plan of heating and cooling gave 
the richest cream I have ever seen. I practiced 
cutting the cream into squares with a knife and 
picked them up with a tin ladle, as pancakes 
would be taken up. I remember some in- 
stances w^hen it would not pour out of a can 
8 inches in diameter when I put it into the 
churn. Such cream cannot be churned until 
reduced with skim-milk or water. 

The advantage that comes from such a qual- 
ity of cream is the thorough creaming that is 
secured. I have not found it practicable to 



84 



AMERICAN DAIRYING. 



treat the milk in this way in the summer 
months. Such cream as this is ripe and ready 
to churn when taken from the milk^ but it can 
be held two or three days with safety if kept at 
a low temperature. It contains but a small 
per cent of milk, and for that reason does not 
sour or ripen so fast as cream 
that has a larger per cent of 
milk in it. 

When milk is set in small 
shallow pans it can be treated 
to this heating and cooling pro- 
cess by placing the pans into a 
vessel of hot water or over boil- 
ing water and heat with steam. 
When this is practiced the tem- 
perature of the milk-room must 
be held down as low as 40 deg. 
Fah., if possible, or the milk will 
sour too soon. My practice was 
to open the windows and get 
derp^t1?I^can. the temperature down near the 
freezing point until the milk was cooled. 

Do not skim the milk until it is ready to be 
skimmed. Thin cream cannot be taken off 
from shallow pans without considerable loss. 
It should stand until the cream thickens and 
the temperature of the room should be such as 
to cause it to thicken before it is old enough 
to suffer ill flavor. Observation and experience 




MILK FROM COW TO CREAM VAT. 



85 



teach a person about these matters. It is also 
important that milk should be skimmed as soon 
as it is ready ; if not, there is danger of loss in 
the flavor. 

Submerged plan. — If the submerged or deep, 
cold system is used for cream-raising the milk 
should be set as soon as practicable after it is 




THE COOLEY CREA3IEB. 



milked and strained. The sooner it is set and 
the colder the water it is set in the better the 
results„ The warming and cooling process can 
be used to advantage with this system. Cream 
rises fastest while the milk is cooling, and if 
we can repeat the cooling process we accom- 
plish more efficient work. 
There is a variety of opinions as to the neces- 



86 



AMERICAN DAIRYING. 



sary time for milk to set to secure the best 
results by the deep, cold-setting system. My 
experience is that a larger yield of butter is 
secured when it is held 24 hours in ice water 
than when held 12 hours, and if held in water 
at 60 deg. Fah. it is best to let it set 36 hours, 
and in some cases 48 hours. 

The breed and period of lactation have much 
influence on the cream raising. The cream 




METHOD OF SKIMMING MILK PROM COOLEY CANS. 



globules are larger in the milk of some breeds 
than others, and this fact must be taken into 
account in the gravity methods of cream-rais- 
ing. The milk of all cows creams more readily 
when they are fresh than when they are ad- 
vanced in the period of lactation. This will 
apply to all methods of creaming, whether 
the shallow pan, the deep, cold system, or the 
separator, although the separator will secure a 



MILK FROM COW TO CREAM VAT. 87 

larger increase of butter over the gravity meth- 
ods when we have a hard-skimming milk than 
when we have a milk that creams readily. The 
conditions must be the most favorable to secure 
thorough creaming with the gravity methods, 
but the separator can be adjusted to get prac- 
tically all the cream from any and all milk. 

Care in skimming. — The skimming of the 
Cooley and "shot-gun" deep-setting cans is very 
different. In the Cooley can the skim-milk is 
drawn from the bottom and the cream is not 
disturbed except as it settles as the milk is 
drawn out of the can, but with the "shot-gun" 




COXE SKTAnrER. FOR USE WITH DEEP CAN 

can the cream is taken off the top with a con- 
ical dipper and great care is necessary to avoid 
mixing the cream and milk during the process 
of skimming. 

Experimental work in creaming. — The ex- 
periment stations of the United States have 
done much valuable work in this line. At the 
New York State Station a comparison of sub- 
merging milk in cans in spring water at 56 deg. 
Fah. and in ice water gave three-fourths of a 
pound more butter per 100 lbs. of milk from 
the use of ice. 

The Wisconsin Station (Report 1884, page 17) 



88 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

found that the loss by setting in water at 55 
deg. might be nearly a third larger than at 45 
deg. and a tenth larger than at 50 deg. 

Snyder (Minnesota "Bulletin 19") found that 
creaming was more rapid and more complete 
in ice water than in water at 60 deg. 

Jordan at the Maine Station found that the 
creaming was more complete at a temperature 
below 45 deg. than at a temperature higher. 

At the New York State Station (Report 1889, 
page 210,) 12 hours setting in ice water was 
found insufficient and 24 hours adopted. 

Centrifugal separators.— When a centrifugal 
separator is to be used 1 would recommend that 
some power be applied, either water, steam, or 
some animal power. Do not calculate on the 
hired man, the boy, or the proprietor doing 
this work. If you have cows enough so you 
can afford to have a separator you can afford 
to have some power to operate it. I have had 
just enough experience in this line to know 
that it is hard work. It is the kind of work 
that does not induce the boys to stay on the 
farm. If any person is to do this w^ork it cer- 
tainly should be the proprietor. 

I do not wish to be understood as opposed 
to the separator as I know very well that 
it will secure for us the most effectual work 
possible. On this point the Delaware Station, 
in "Bulletin 17," calculates that with a herd 



MILK FROM COW TO CREAM VAT. 



89 



averaging 100 lbs. of milk morning and night 
the year through the separator would save about 




280 lbs. of butter in the year, which at 25 cents 
per pound would be a gain of $70 over cold 



90 



AMERICAN DAIRYING. 



setting; but if fair wages be counted for the 
hand-labor the profit would be much reduced, 
if not wiped out, and the station suggests that 




BABY DE LAVAL SEPARATOR. 



horse or other power be used in place of hand 
power. 

T believe that we can make butter with a 
more delicate flavor, or if you please a higher 
flavor, when the separator is used than with 



MILK FROM COW TO CREAM VAT. 



91 



the gravity methods of creaming. Especially 
will this be the case in the dairy, as the milk 







will be separated immediately after milking, 
and the quicker it is done the better. With 
the utmost cleanliness there is liable to be and 



92 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

at times will be elements in milk from contact 
with which it is best that the cream should be 
removed. Any person that has operated and 
cleaned separators for a few months can realize 
this point fully. In proof of this point it has 
been learned that milk for cheese-making is 
improved by running it through a separator 
without separating the cream. I think Dr. 
Babcock has practiced this in an experimental 
way. 

When the separator is to be used it is best to 
separate as soon after milking as practicable. 
If power of some kind is used the separator 
can be put in operation soon after milking has 
commenced, or at least commence in time to 
have continuous work for the separator and get 
through separating as soon as practicable after 
the milking is done. The milk as it comes 
from the cow is in the best possible condition 
to separate. 

Farm skim-milk. — There is a great variety 
in the quality of work done in the line of skim- 
ming by farmers. I have tested farmers' skim- 
milk from the gravity process that contained 
1| per cent of fat. They had recovered less 
than two-thirds of the fat in the milk. This 
quality of work makes an enormous loss. No 
business except farming could stand such 
losses. The dairyman of the future is not 
going to make such wastes. It is only quite 



MILK FROM COW TO CREAM VAT. 93 

recently that we have had a practical method 
of knowmg what losses were being made, and 
now we are stopping these leaks rapidl}^ 



CHAPTER VI. 



RIPENING AND CHURNING. 

We will now suppose we have the cream 
separated from the milk by some one of the 
processes. The cream from the shallow setting 
when the milk was sour at the time the skim- 
ming was done may be churned as soon as con- 
venient after it is taken from the milk, as it 
has ripened on the milk and is in good con- 
dition to churn. 

Holding cream. — It may also be put in a 
can and held tvvo or three days if held at a low 
temperature — 40 to 45 deg. — and cream may 
be added from each succeeding skimming and 
thoroughly mixed with the cream already in 
the cream can. The cream can should be large 
enough to hold a churning; then we are quite 
sure that the cream is all of a uniform ripe- 
ness. This is necessary to secure the most ex- 
haustive churning. 

When we mix cream of different degrees of 
ripeness in the churn there is sure to be a large 
loss in the buttermilk. If the churning is done 
at a low temperature the loss will be less than 

(94) 



RIPENING AND CHURNING. 95 

if done at 60 or 62 cleg. This rule will hold 
good with all kinds of cream and all degrees of 
ripeness. 

Some kind of a vessel about the same depth 
as the cream can and several inches larger ir 
diameter is needed to put the cream can in and 
surround it with water, warm or cold, as need- 
ed to warm or cool the cream. A wooden vat 
may be used for this purpose. 

Deep cold-setting cream.— The cream from 
the deep cold-setting will l^e, or should be, at a 
low temperature when taken from the milk. 
This may be put in the cream can or vat and 
held at a low temperature, as low as 40 deg. if 
practical, adding the cream from each succeed- 
ing skimming until a churning is secured, or 
two to four days, giving the cream a thorough 
stirring every time fresh cream is added. About 
eighteen to twenty hours before you wish to 
churn \yarm this cream up to 65 deg. and hold 
it at this temperature until ripened, which will 
be about eighteen hours. Acidity of cream and 
an acid test for cream will be talked about in 
'Tart II" of this book. 

Separator cream. — The cream from the sep- 
arator should be immediately cooled to a low 
temperature, the degree depending on when it 
is to be churned. If to be held two or three 
days cool it to 40 deg., or as near it as is prac- 
tical. If ice is used 40 deg. can be reached. 



96 



AMERICAN DAIRYING. 



The cream from each successive skimming may 
be added to the' can and thorougiily mixed at 
each addition of cream. This cream may be 
ripened the same as the cream from the deep 
cold system. 

Different temperatures for churning. — We 
now liave the cream from the shallow setting, 

the deep setting, 
and from the sepa- 
rator ripened ready 
to churn. The next 
point is to secure 
the proper temper- 
ature before put- 
ting it in the churn. 
It is best to cool 
the cream from the 
shallow-setting sys- 
tem to 54 to 56 deg. 
before churning. 
This cream is rich 
in fat and can be 
churned at this temperature without any diffi- 
culty. Let the cream stand at low temperature 
before churning long enough for the fats to 
solidify or harden. 

The cream from the deep cold system has a 
much larger per cent of milk in it, and conse- 
quently a smaller per cent of fat, and will need 
to be churned at a higher temperature. If we 




BARREL DAIRY CHURN. 



RIPENING AND CHURNING. 97 

undertake to churn this cream below 55 deg. 
we will probably have trouble from its swell- 
ing and will find the churn full of frothy 



SQUAEE BOX CHUBIST. 

cream. The proper temperature for this cream 
is 60 to 62 deg. in winter and 58 to 60 deg. in 
summer. 

The separator cream should be cooled to a 



98 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

temperature to correspond with the per cent 
of fat it contains. If the separator is adjusted 
to take from one-seventh to one-eighth of the 
whole milk as cream it will contain sufficient 
fat so we can churn it at a temperature below 
55 deg., but if the separator is adjusted to take 
from one-fourth to one-fifth of the milk as 
cream we shall need to churn at the tempera- 
ture of 58 to 60 deg. This kind of cream gives 
us more buttermilk and a buttermilk with more 
fat in it. Rich cream and low temperature 
give the most exhaustive churning. 

When the cream is being cooled get the 
churn ready by first scalding with water that is 
above 180 deg , and if it boils, all the better, as 
it will then surely scald. After scalding cool 
thoroughly with cold water and ice if you have 
it. When cooled the churn is ready for the 
cream. Never fill the churn more than half 
full, as it will require more time and not do so 
thorough churning. 

Strain the cream into the churn. A perfo- 
rated tin strainer is good for this work. Strain- 
ing breaks up any dried cream there may be, 
also the curd if there is any, and enables us to 
wash it out of the granular butter with less 
labor and care. There should be no curd in the 
cream, and if it has ])een agitated frequently 
and not allowed to become too sour there will 
be none. 



RIPENING AND CHURNING. 



99 



Butter color. — If the butter needs coloring 
to satisfy your trade put it into the cream be- 
fore starting to churn. Wlien purchasing but- 
ter color be sure that you get fresh goods, as it 
will sometimes become stale with age and in- 
jure the flavor of the butter. If you buy the 
small bottles at your grocery store you will 




BECTAXGULAR CHURN. 



need to look well after this point. I have had 
butter color that would impart a flavor to the 
cream that could be detected before the churn 
was started. 

Temperature of churn room. — Have the 
temperature of the room in which the churn- 
ing is to be done as cold as the cream if x)ossi- 
ble, and if it is 10 to 15 deg. colder all the better, 



100 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

as the cream will then not warm durmg the 
churning process. But if the churn room is up 
to 75 to 80 cleg, the cream will warm up veiy 
fast and the butter will not be in as good con- 
dition. It will need much more washing than 
when it gathers cold. 

Washing the butter. — The churn should be 
stopped when the granules of butter are the 




DOG POWEK. 



size of wheat, the buttermilk drawn through 
a fine sieve, and the butter then washed as little 
as practical to remove the buttermilk. Here is 
where the cold churning has the advantage, as 
the butter will not need so much washing. 
When the butter gathers at 62 to 64 deg. it will 
need three washings to remove the buttermilk, 
and it will then show milk}^ when being 
worked. But if the butter gathers at 52 to 54 



RIPENING AND CHURNING. 101 

deg. it will need but one washing, if any, and I 
am confident we will have a better flavor if 
not washed at all. When washing do not let 
the butter-remain in the water any longer than 
is absolutely necessary. Remove it as soon as 
it has done its work. Allowing butter to lie in 
water is a vital mistake. ^ 

Low temperature. — Churning at 50 to 52 
deg. is a radical change from the general prac- 
tice and there are still 
many who do not be- 
lieve it practical, but 
it is the daily practice 
in our creameries in 
cold weather. It is 
not unusual, but the 
rule, that our butter 
will stand as low as 
54 deg. in winter when 
the buttermilk is re- 
moved. To avoid too 
much washing churn 
at as low temperature as possible. To secure 
the most exhaustive churning churn at low 
temperature. To churn at a low temperature 
it is necessary to have a rich cream. Do not 
attempt to churn poor or thin cream at a low 
temjperature, as you will have trouble. I have 
many times in my early experience with cream 
from deep, cold setting that was too cold and 




DAVIS SWING CHURN. 



102 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

swelled so as to fill the churn too full, there oy 
preventing churning, drawn out one-half of it 
and made two churnings. This will require less 
time and much less patience than it will to 
churn, or try to, when the churn is so full that 
there is no concussion. 

Handle with ladle. — Kee]) the hitter in the 
granular form until it is put onto the worker 
and the salt added. Kee^p your hands out of the 
butter and handle it with a wooden scoop and 
ladle. 



CHAPTER VII 



SALTING, WORKING, PACKING AND 
PRINTING. 

The salting may be done in the churn or on 
the worker. If the box or barrel churn is used 
it can be salted very nicely in the churn. Use 
a sieve and put the salt through it into the 
granular butter; then revolve the churn very 
slowly and the salt can be thoroughly mixed 
with the butter before it is taken from the 
churn and while it is in the granular form. 
The main objection I have to salting granular 
butter in the churn is the uncertainty as to the 
amount or weight of the butter. When a small 
churn is used this can be overcome by weigh- 
ing the churn with the butter in it. This was 
my practice until my dairy increased so as to 
require a churn of a size that could not be 
readily handled and weighed. The advantage 
of churning at a low temperature comes in here 
too, as butter at a low temperature does not 
pack so readily and the salt can be mixed with 
less w^orking. 

(103) 



104 



AMERICAN DAIRYING. 



Use sufficient salt to suit your trade. Out 
experience is with a trade that wants three- 
quarters to one ounce per pound. Work the 
butter once or twice as you like. 

Take the butter out of the churn with a 
wooden scoop. A small hand scoop can be se- 
cured for dairy work. Some style of a hand 




EUREKA BUTTER-WORKER. 



butter-worker should be used. There are sev- 
eral styles or makes that are all right. 

Once working. — The butter should be worked 
enough to thoroughly incorporate the salt so 
that w^hen it has stood twenty-four hours it will 
not show mottled or streaked when bored or 
cut with a ladle. If at any time you find this 
appearance in your butter you may know it is 
not sufficiently worked, and it is best to rework 
butter that has much of this appearance. 



SALTING, WORKING AND PACKING. 



105 



Twice working. — If twice working is prac- 
ticed it should be worked sufficiently at the first 
working to get the salt well incorporated with 
the butter; then it should stand long enough 




to allow the salt to dissolve, when it is ready 
for the final workhig At this working the but- 
ter is sufiiciently treated when there are no 



106 



AMERICAN DAIRYING. 



streaks of .white to be seen when cut 
with the ladle and held to the light. 




BCTTTER SPADE — SHORT HANDLE. 

Do not confound this mottled or 
streaked appearance that comes from 




iiij,;,;iiiiii;:i;iiiiiiiiii!i!iiiiiiii 



ANDERSON BUTTER LADLE. 

insufficient working with 
the white curd specks that 
come from too sour cream. 
With cream from shallow 




SPOOX LADLE. 



BUTTER SPADE- 
LONG HANDLE. 



pans there is some danger 
of parts becoming so dry 
that they go through the 



SALTING, WORKING AND PACKING. 107 

churning process and we find them in the but- 
ter as dried cream, and when color has been 
used they will show as light spots, though not 
white as the curd will. Straining the cream 
will remedy this trouble. You can readily tell 
the difference, as one is fat and will readily dis- 
solve between the thumb and finger and the 




LEVER BUTTEB-WOBKEB. 

other is curd and will not dissolve either in the 
mouth or by heat. 

Kind of packages. — Use a package to suit 
your trade, but whatever you use be sure that 
it is clean and sweet. Stone and earthen jars 
must be looked after very carefully, especially 
if they have been previously used, as they 
quickly get out of condition if not properly 



108 



AMERICAN DAIRYING. 



cared for.^ Wooden packages should not be 
used a second time for packed butter. Most of 
tliem are cheaply made and are intended to be 
used but once, and it is a very difficult matter 
to have them kept so that it is safe to use a 
second time. 

The dairyman will have more of this to con- 
tend with than the creameryman will, and he 
must look sharply after it. I have had bad- 
smelling packages 
come from the 
best families. The 
mistress cannot 
see to everything, 
but must trust to 
someone, and she 
is sometimes de- 
ceived on this 
point. 

A desirable way 
to put up butter 
for near-by mar- 
kets is in prints. 
I find that the retailer prefers this form to the 
solid packed, as he can handle it like canned 
goods in filling orders. I have been told by 
grocerymen that when they sell small quanti- 
ties from a large package three cents margin is 
necessary to get back the money they paid for 
the butter. Another point in favor of the print 




BUTTER SHTPi'ii>vx Bij^. 



SALTING, WORKING AND PACKING. 109 

butter is its Abetter appearance. When it is 
nicely printed and wrapped in parchment paper 
it looks very neat and attractive. It can also be 
more readily put in good shape for the table. 
In the Eastern and some of the Middle States 
a large percentage of butter goes to market in 
prints. 

There are shipping-boxes for print butter for 
sale by dairy-implement dealers, some with ice- 
box attachment and others without. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



MARKETING DAIEY BUTTER. 

There are many ways of marketing dairy 
butter. At times it may be sold to good advan- 
tage at the country store, but this is the excep- 
tion, not the rule. The country store does not 
usually pay for butter on its merits. The seller 
is often a customer and they do not want to 
offend, and so they pay more for poor butter 
than it is worth, and to balance up must pay 
less for the good butter than it is worth. 

In many places a good market may be secured 
among the citizens of the village or city where 
you trade. Many are anxious to have a reliable 
source of supply, and are willing to pay well 
for butter that satisfies them. 

Poor butter makes a loss.— Poor butter makes 
a loss to the maker and usually to every one 
down the line that has anything to do with it, 
excepting the commission houses, and it makes 
them tired. The dealer makes his lorolit on the 
fine goods. 

Pine butter makes a profit. — There is no 
trouble in selling fine butter. The trouble will 

(Un) 



MARKETING DAIRY BUTTER. 



Ill 



come from not oeing able to supply the demand. 
When you have reached this condition you are 




in position to secure an advance in price. This 
is what you have been working for. Now you 



112 



AMERICAN DAIRYING. 



have the move in the game and shonlcl try to 
keep it. This you can do only by continually 
trying to do better work. It will not answer 
to think you have reached the top and can stay 
there without an effort, as this feeling leads to 
defeat. 

Commission houses.— A good w^ay is to con- 
sign to a reliable commission house. Here your 
butter will sell on its merits, and if there is 



^^^^^&- 




GLASS BUTTER PACKAGE. 



anything wrong with it you can learn what the 
trouble is, and when you are told do not be 
offended about it, but go to work and remedy 
the trouble. 

In selecting a commission firm to sell your 
butter be careful not to make a mistake. There 
are plenty of reliable firms that advertise in the 
dairy papers. Many dairy papers will not re- 
ceive an advertisement from a firm that they 
do not know to be reliable. And this is right. 

When you have decided to let a commission 
man handle your butter and have selected your 



MARKETING DAIRY BUTTER. 113 

man, remember that you and the commission 
man are both interested in having good sales 
made, and you can help him by shipping your 
butter on a regular day, as often as once per 
week. The commission man .will soon have 
customers for your butter and they will depend 
on it. 

Have a brand for your butter, ana l)e sure 
you keep the quality up to standard. If at any 
time you have butter that is not up to stand- 
ard keep your brand off of it. Consign it to your 
regular man and tell him what the trouble is, 
if you know, and if you do not know ask him 
to help you over the difficulty and in many 
cases he will be able to do it. Treat him as a 
friend and nine times out of ten he will prove 
a friend. 

In my early dairy experience I had private 
customers, but I somehow drifted away from 
them. Sometimes I had a surplus to consign 
and at other times I did not have enough to 
supply or fill my orders, and if I bought to meet 
the demand there was in many cases dissatis- 
faction. 

Butter has individuality. — There is an indi- 
viduality about butter as much as in persons, 
and when customers become familiar with a 
certain brand of butter they prefer it to some 
other make that is equally good. This individ- 
uality mast be preserved. If at anytime you 



114 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

think it best to make a change in any of the 
details of your work let the change be made 
gradually, so the customers will adapt them- 
selves to the change and probably be pleased 
with it, when if you had made an abrupt 
change they would not have liked it. I recently 
had the pleasure of examining some butter 
made near one of our large cities. This butter 
was selling for seventy-five cents per pound. 
This caused me to examine it very carefully. 
The butter was very iine. It had a peculiar fla- 
vor, different from any flavor I had ever discov- 
ered in butter before. I was told that this pe- 
culiar flavor was virtually a trade-mark ; that 
the consumers soon learned to like it and pre- 
ferred it to any other flavor. I mention this in 
proof of the statement that customers prefer 
what they have become accustomed to rather 
than anything different that is equally good. 

Care pays well. — Do not be afraid that ex- 
tra time spent in fitting your butter for market 
will not pay. Remember that you are building 
a reputation that will enable you to secure a 
better price and cause your butter to sell read- 
ily at all times, and on a dull or declining mar- 
ket especially will it do you good, as your goods 
will move in time to escape a large part of the 
decline. Poor butter always gets caught when 
the market declines. This leaves it to go from 
bad to worse, and it will go at a terrible gait. 



MARKETING DAIRY BUTTER. 115 

This we are well aware of when the returns 
come. 

Profits from a dairy farm. — Acting on the 
judgment of several of my friends that it is a 
proper thing to do I give here a short business 
account, showing in a condensed way the profit 
of my farm in 1893: 

Sales. 

Hogs $1,726.49 

Fat cows 480.90 

Oats 270.40 

Butter and calves 4,410.69 

$6,888.48 
Expenses. 

Ground feed and corn bought $1,522.35 

Five regular men 1,525.00 

Taxes, insurance, blacksmithing. groceries. 

hardware, extra labor, etc 1.494.36 

— $4,541.71 

Profits $2,346.77 

My stock I appraise at $3,760.00, on which 
I figure 6 per cent interest, which amounts 
to $225:60. This taken from the balance of 
$^,346.77 leaves $2,121.17 to be credited to the 
land. My farm contains 354 acres, valued at 
$60 per acre, or $21,240. This is practically 10 
per cent interest on the land and 6 per cent on 
the stock, or 9| per cent on the total invested 
in stock and tools. I do not live on my farm, 
but spend one day per week looking after it. 
I had more stock on the farm Jan. 1, 1894, than 
I did Jan. 1, 1893, This I did not take into 
account. 



CHAPTER IX. 



SKIM-MILK. 

There are comparatively few farmers that 
realize the value of skim-milk as a food for pigs 
and calves. My experience has taught me that 
when made the entire food of pigs weighing 
50 to 75 lbs. it produced a pound's increase from 
16 lbs. of skim-milk. With live hogs worth 4 
cents per pound this would make the skim- 
milk worth 25 cents per 100 lbs. 

Value fed alone.^I do not advise feeding 
pigs entirely on skim-milk. It is more profit- 
able to feed some grain food in connection 
with it. The combination will give better re- 
sults. The question arises, Where shall we 
credit the increased profit that comes from 
feeding the combination of skim -milk and 
grain food over feeding either one separate, 
or making either skim-milk or the grain the 
entire food? I formerly divided this increased 
profit and gave one-half to the skim-milk and 
one-half to the grain feed. I am now in doubt 
about the justice of this practice. I believe 

(116) 



SKIM-MILK. 117 

the skim-niiik should have credit for all the in- 
creased profit there may be above what there 
would be in feeding the grain food alone. 

Cost of growth with corn. — In June, 1874, 
a lot of 20 pigs weighing 51 lbs. each fed 
entirely on corn and the increase weight cred- 
ited at 4 cents per pound, paid 34 cents per 
bushel for the corn. 

In January, 1875, a lot of 32 pigs Aveighing 
223 lbs. each fed entirely on corn made me 31 J 
cents per bushel for the corn fed, with pork at 
4 cents per pound, live weight. 

In February, 1875, a bunch of 30 pigs weigh- 
ing 263 lbs. each fed on corn and the increase 
credited at 4 cents per pound brought me 34 
cents per bushel for the corn. 

In January, 1876, 54 pigs weighing 254 lbs. 
each were fed on corn and the increase figured 
at 4 cents per pound made me 39 8-10 cents per 
bushel for the corn fed. 

In October, 1877, 34 hogs weighing 302 lbs. 
each were fed new corn and made me 49 cents 
per bushel with live hogs Avorth 4 cents per 
pound. 

The average of these four experiments gave 
me 37 cents per bushel for corn made into pork 
at 4 cents per pound, live weight; or, iu other 
words, if the corn were figured at 35 cents per 
bushel the pork cost $3.78 per 100 lbs., live 
weight. 



118 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

Wisconsin station work. — The Wiscousiii 
Report of 1885, pages 34, 35, and 36, gives the 
results of some experiments showing the cost 
of producing pork with corn-meal at $16 per 
ton to have been 4.3 cents per pound; with 
wheat shorts at $14 per ton it cost 3.7 cents, 
and with a mixture of one-half each corn-meal 
and wheat shorts it cost 3.3 cents. With corn 
at 35 cents per bushel and wheat shorts at 70 
cents per 100 lbs., the ration being two parts 
corn and one loart shorts, the cost per pound of 
increase was 4.1 cents in one instance and with 
another lot with the same feed the cost was 4.4 
cents. The same lots immediately following 
these experiments were fed on corn at 35 cents 
per bushel and made pork at a cost of 4.8 cents 
and 4.6 cents. 

In the Wisconsin Report of 1888, page 109, it 
is recorded that the work with whole corn at 
35 cents per bushel made the gain cost 4.9 cents 
per pound. On the same page the work shows 
wheat shorts at 70 cents per 100 lbs. to have 
made pork at a cost of 3.6 cents. Where two 
parts corn and one part shorts were fed, corn 
being 35 cents per bushel and shorts 70 cents 
per 100 lbs., the cost of gain was 3.85 cents per 
pound. When two parts shorts and one part 
corn was fed the cost was 3.25 cents per pound. 

On page 111 of the same report the average 
of three experiments with whole corn is given 



SKIM-MILK. 119 

as 35 cents per bushel. The iDork cost 4.9 cents 
per pound live weight. In five experiments 
with corn-meal in summer at 80 cents per 100 
lbs. the pork cost 4.28 cents, and in three ex- 
periments with corn-meal in winter it cost 4.14 
cents per pound, live weight, to produce pork. 

Illinois station work.— The Illinois Experi- 
ment Station, in "Bulletin No. 16," gives the 
results in tabulated form of sixteen experi- 
ments made in feeding corn alone to pigs. 
These experiments were made in nine different 
months of the year and show excellent work. 
The average of the sixteen lots showed 11^ lbs. 
live weight made from 56 lbs. of corn. With 
corn worth 35 cents per bushel this would make 
pork cost a trifle over 3 cents per pound. The 
poorest results were obtained from work done 
in January, which showed 6.93 lbs. from one 
bushel of corn fed to pigs weighing 108 lbs. 
each. The next poorest results were obtained 
in June, July and August, and showed 8.28 lbs. 
per bushel of corn fed to pigs weighing 208 lbs. 
each. The third poorest result was in July, 
and showed 8.66 lbs. per bushel fed to pigs of 
223 lbs. weight. The best work was done in 
December, and showed 16.81 lbs. from one 
bushel of corn. 

Virginia station work. — The Virginia Ex- 
periment Station, in "Bulletin No. 10/' found 
it to cost 5.3 cents per pound to produce pork 



120 , AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

with corn-meal at $20 per ton. On this basis 
if the corn-meal had been $16 per ton the 
pork would have cost 4^ cents per pound live 
weight. 

Average farmer's work. — I am confident 
the average farmer feeding corn alone makes 
very little if any profit in producing pork on a 
basis of 35 cents per bushel for corn and $4 per 
100 lbs. live weight for hogs. There are short 
periods, for instance with hogs that have been 
at pasture or that have been having a part 
ration of skim -milk or when being fed new 
corn before it becomes hard, that there may be 
and is a good profit at the above-mentioned 
prices of corn and pork. On the other hand 
there are times when hogs have been fed an 
exclusive corn diet for several months that 
there is a severe loss at above-mentioned prices 
of corn and pork. We cannot expect the aver- 
age farmer to do as good work feeding as the 
experiment stations, but we have farmers that 
can and do get equally good results. 

Prof. Cooke's opinion. — In the 1892 report 
of the Vermont Experiment Station Prof. W. 
W. Cooke says: ^'It would be a proper method 
of accounting to take out from the amount re- 
ceived for the pork made the cost of the grain 
food and consider the balance as what was re- 
ceived for the skim-milk." He also says: 
"The only reason for keeping and feeding the 



SKIM-MILK. 121 

pigs was to serve as a method of utilizing the 
skim-milk." 

Credit skim-milk.— If I am right in my 
conclusions that there is little if any profit in 
producing 4-cent pork from 35-cent corn it will 
be just and fair to credit skim-milk with the 
profit that comes with feeding a combination 
of skim-milk and grain food when the growth 
is credited at 4 cents. When pork is worth 
more than 4 cents, as it frequently or generally 
is, we are on a new basis and both grain food 
and skim-milk will receive more credit. 

Feeding sow with pigs. — In 1878 I made 
some experiments with feeding pigs, taking a 
litter of eight pigs and their dam when the pigs 
were twelve days old. The dam weighed 290 
lbs. and the eight pigs 61 lbs., making a total 
of 351 l))s. Eighteen days later the dam 
weighed 295 lbs. and the eight pigs 112 lbs., a 
total weight of 407 lbs. This was a gain in 
eighteen days of 56 lbs. w^orth 4 cents per 
pound, or $2.24. They were fed 141 lbs. of 
corn-meal and wheat bran worth $14 per ton, 
or 98 cents. They were also fed 530 lbs. skim- 
milk. We will deduct from the value of the 
increase weight ($2.24) the cost of meal and 
bran (74 cents) and we have $1.26 for the 530 
lbs. skim-milk, or 23 4-5 cents per 100 lbs. of 
skim-milk. 

Same pigs at 40 lbs.— June 8 the eight pigs 



122 . AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

weighed 327 lbs. June 21 they weighed 428 
lbs. — a gain of 96 lbs. in thirteen days which 
was worth 4 cents per pound, or $3.86. They 
were fed 217 lbs. of corn which at 35 cents per 
bushel would be worth $1.36, which deducted 
from $3.86 would leave $2.48 to the credit of 
the 439 lbs. of skim-milk, or 56^ cents per 100 
lbs. 

We will take this $3.84 which we get for the 
96 lbs. of growth at 4 cents ]3er pound and 
charge up the corn fed at 50 cents per bushel: 
3 J bushels at 50 cents would amount to $1.93, 
which deducted from $3.84 would leave $1.91, 
or 43 cents per 100 lbs. for the 439 lbs. of skim- 
milk fed. 

Let us figure this another waj^ We will 
su]Dpose 200 lbs. of skim-milk equal to one 
bushel of corn, and we have 3.87 bushels of 
corn, and the 439 lbs. of skim-milk would equal 
2.19 bushels, making 6.06 bushels, for which we 
received $3.84, or 63 cents per bushel. 

Now charge the pigs with the skim -milk at 
25 cents per 100 lbs. and the corn at 35 cents 
per bushel and we have the following account: 

439 lbs. skim-milk at 25 cents $1.10 

3^ bushels of corn at 35 cents 1.35 

Cost of the 96 lbs. growth $2.45 

Cost per i^ouncl of growth 02i 

Same pigs at 125 lbs. weight. — This bunch 
of pigs after reaching a weight of 125 lbs. made 



SKIM-MILK. 128 

growth at a cost of 2.64 cents per pound with 
corn figured at 35 cents per bushel and skim- 
milk at 25 cents per 100 lbs. 

I was a farmer when I did this work and am 
a farmer yet, but do not now milk the cows 
and feed the pigs and calves as I did when liv- 
ing on the farm. 

Wisconsin experiments. — The Wisconsin 
report of 1888, page 92, gives some interesting 
reports of work done in feeding corn-meal and 
skim-milk, also whole corn and skim-milk. A 
saving of about 10 per cent was found by grind- 
ing the corn into meal, which amount scarcely 
paid for the grinding. Taking the figures and 
charging up the corn-meal at 80 cents per 100 
lbs. and crediting 4 cents per pound for the in- 
crease in weight made and giving the skim- 
milk credit for all the profit made, we have as 
follows: 183 lbs. sweet skim- milk and 366 lbs. 
corn-meal made 100 lbs. gain; 366 lbs. corn- 
meal at 80 cents per 100 lbs. equals $2.93, to be 
deducted from $4, the price of the 100 lbs. gain, 
and we have $1.07 to the credit of the 183 lbs. 
of sweet skiui-milk, which is 58 cents per 100 
lbs. This lot of hogs averaged 288 lbs. An- 
other lot averaging 204 lbs. each, fed at the 
same time and in exactly the same way, made 
40 cents per 100 lbs. for the sweet skim-milk. 
Work done at the same time in feeding sweet 
skim-milk and whole corn, estimating the corn 



124 , AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

at 40 cents per bushel and allowing 4 cents per 
pound for the increase and crediting the skim- 
milk with the whole profit, gives us 50 cents 
per 100 lbs. for it. The hogs were fed two 
pounds of grain food to each pound of skim- 
milk. The Wisconsin experimenters did not 
figure the trial in this way. I have taken the 
responsibility of putting their work in this 
shape. They may well feel proud of their work 
in this line. 

On page 96 of the Wisconsin report of 1888 is 
a statement of the results of feeding different 
amounts of sweet skim-milk and corn-meal to 
pigs. In this work there were three lots of 
pigs of three each. Lot A was fed 350 lbs. of 
sweet skim-milk to 100 lbs. of corn-meal. Lot 
B w^as fed 100 lbs. of sweet skim-milk to 110 
lbs. of corn-meal. Lot C was fed 100 lbs. of 
sweet skim-milk to 300 lbs. of corn- meal. Fig- 
uring the corn-meal to be worth 80 cents per 
100 lbs. and the skim-milk 25 cents per 100 lbs., 
the cost of the increase was as follows: 

Lot A, fed 350 lbs. sweet skim-milk to 100 lbs. 

corn-meal, cost 3i cts. per lb. 

Lot B, fed 100 lbs. sweet skim-milk to 110 lbs. 

corn-meal, cost 3 cts. per lb. 

Lot C, fed 100 lbs. sweet skim-milk to 300 lbs. 

corn-meal, cost 3 cts. per lb. 

Prof: Henry says: "This trial shows that to 
produce pork rapidly a large proportion of milk 
to corn-meal may be fed, but that such feeding 



SKIM-MILK. 125 

is not the most economical when cost of prod- 
uct is considered, and that one pound to one 
pound and a half of milk to one pound of corn- 
meal is as much as can be profitably fed when 
milk is valued at 20 to 25 cents per 100 lbs. and 
corn-meal at 75 cents per 100 lbs." 

Old and young animals. — The Wisconsin re- 
port of 1889, page 24, gives some results of work 
done to show the value of skim-milk fed to 
mature versus growing hogs. 

With lot 1, hogs weighing 400 lbs., it required 
1,430 lbs. of skim-milk and 301 lbs. of corn-meal 
to produce 100 lbs. increase. Crediting the in- 
crease at 4 cents per pound and charging 80 
cents per 100 lbs. for the corn-meal, we have 11 
cents per 100 lbs. left for the skim-milk fed. 

With lot 2, hogs weighing 144 lbs., it required 
1,024 lbs. of skim-milk and 174 of corn-meal 
to produce 100 lbs. live weight. Figuring this 
on the same basis as lot 1, we secure 25 cents 
per 100 lbs. for the skim-milk. 

These figures illustrate the facts so often 
brought out, that to do profitable work we 
must have young and growing animals. 

Before and after weaning. — In the 1889 
Wisconsin report is recorded some very valu- 
able work in feeding pigs before and after 
weaning. In these trials there were four lots 
of pigs. The experiment made before weaning 
continued from 55 to 64 days, the sows being 



126 ' AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

weighed with the pigs. They were fed corn- 
meal and shorts and skim-milk. Figuring the 
corn-meal and shorts at $14 per ton and the 
sweet skim-milk at 25 cents per 100 lbs., the 
growth cost as follows: 

With lot 1 $3.10 per 100 Ibg. 

With lot 2 3.44 per 100 lbs. 

With lot 3 3.03 per 100 lbs. 

With lot 4 3.00 per 100 lbs. 

Figured on the same basis after weaning the 
growth cost as follows: 

Lot 1 $3.23 per 100 lbs. 

Lot 2 2.95 per 100 lbs. 

Lot 3 2 61 per 100 lbs. 

Lot 4 2.60 per 100 lbs. 

The trial after weaning covered from 30 to 
46 days. 

Figuring the gain made by these pigs at 4 
cents per pound, and deducting therefrom the 
cost of the ground feed at $14 per ton for corn- 
meal and shorts, half of each, thereby giving 
the skim-milk credit for all the profit, we find 
that in the work before weaning we receive 30 
cents, 40 cents, 41 cents and 43 cents per 100 
lbs. of sweet skim-milk, and after weaning on 
the same basis we receive 38 cents, 43 cents, 51 
cents and 55 cents per 100 lbs. of skim-milk. 

We have found in one instance that 400-lb. 
hogs paid us 11 cents per 100 lbs. for skim-milk, 
and in other cases we have found with pigs 
about three months old that we received as 



SKIM-MILK. 127 

high as 50 cents per 100 lbs. of skim-milk. 
How much of this do we poor mortals need to 
get ourselves in the proper condition to receive 
good from such work? Let us not sit down 
and say we cannot accomplish any such work, 
for we can. Some of us have done it and more 
of us can when we go about it intelligently. 

New Hampshire station work. — The New 
Hampshire Experiment Station, "Bulletin No. 
11," gives some valuable work on pig-feeding. 
Every hog-raiser in the country should read it. 
It gives the results of feeding skim-milk and 
corn-meal versus corn-meal and middlings. 
The work commenced with pigs six weeks old 
and weighing 28 lbs. each. The experiment 
commenced Sept. 3 and ended Jan. 14, extend- 
ing over four and one-third months' time and 
at a season of the year that gave a fair average 
of temperature. At the commencement of the 
experiment skim-milk is assumed to be worth 
25 cents per 100 lbs.; later in the work the re- 
sults are figured so as to show the actual value 
of the skim-milk. 

A valuable point. — The most noticeable 
point about the work is the marked superiority 
of the skim-milk and corn-meal ration over the 
corn-meal and middlings, notwithstanding the 
fact that the latter contained the most digesti- 
ble matter. Another noticeable point is in- 



128 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

creased cost of producing pork as the pigs grew 
older. 

Cost increases with age. — Lot 1, Sept. 3 to 
24, with skim-milk at 25 cents per 100 lbs. and 
corn-meal $20 per ton, it cost .0258 to produce 
a pound's increase of live weight. With the 
same lot and same feed Oct. 15 to Nov. 5 it cost 
.035 per pound, and Dec. 10 to Jan. 24 it cost 
.0434. Lot 2 showed nearly the same results. 
The following is clipped from this bulletin: 

With grain costing, as this did, $20 per ton for corn-meal 
and $26 for middlings such pigs as these were cannot be fed 
without loss when pork sells at 4 cents alive or 5 cents 
dressed. 

With skim-milk, however, the case is different for two 
reasons: First, less "raw material," that is digestible mat- 
ter, is required to produce a pound of growth, as shown be- 
low. 

DIGESTIBLE MATTER PER 100 LBS. OF GROWTH. 

Average digestible dry matter required to produce 100 
lbs. gain: 

Lot 1. Lot 2. 

Skim-milk and corn-meal 242 220J^ 

Meal and middlings 3343^ 334}^ 

Average for entire time 279 288?| 

and secondly, because with skim-milk and corn-meal a 
greater quantity of food can be handled daily. Thus by both 
of these factors the time required for producing a 200-lb. pig 
is reduced very materially. This point is not sufficiently ap- 
preciated by many who feed pigs. With the present prices 
there is but one way in which pork can be produced at a 
profit and that is by producing a 200-lb. pig in the shortest 
possible time. 

We see from Table II that tlic cost of growth and the 
amount of food required to produce 100 lbs. of growth in- 
crease as the pigs grow older, and it would have been much 



SKIM-MILK. 



129 



more profitable to have sold them when averaging- 175 lbs. 
each than when averaging 240 lbs. 

Thus far we have, for convenience, figured all results on 
the assumption that the skim-milk used was worth 25 cents 
per 100 lbs. 

We will now see what its value actually was under the 
conditions of this experiment, the price of live hogs being 4 
cents per pound and the cost of grain as previously men- 
tioned. 

For our present purpose we will neglect the first cost of 
the pigs and note the value of the gain of live weight for each 
period where skim-milk was used as a part of the ration: 

TABLE IV. 





LOT ONE. 1 


LOT TWO. 


►tJ 


S15 


Ti o. ^ 


c^ 


1^ 


a ^ 


:^ 


o. ^ 


<*^ 


1^ 


i 


§1 


fit 


Si 

4 s 


11 


81 








ft 




5 S 


• 


if 


1 


It 




? 


1 - 


1 


§1 


1 


$2.32 


$1.01 


$1.31 


196 lbs. 


$0.67 












2 












$3.58 


$1.68 


UM 


294 lbs. 


$0.64^ 


3 


3.68 


2.2(1 


1.48 


406 lbs. 


36^ 




1 






4 












9.64 


5.98 3.62 


1,116 lbs. 


.S2H 


5 


9.68 


7.28 


2.40 


1,295 lbs, 


18^ 












Total. 


$15.68 


$10.49 


$5.19 


1,897 lbs. 




$13.22 


$7.66 


$5.56 


1,410 lbs. 




Av'gel 








$0.27J^ 










$0,393^ 



This table is constructed by determining the value of the 
gain for each skim-milk period and subtracting therefrom 
the cost of the corn-meal which was fed with the skim-milk; 
the remainder represents the value of the skim-milk, which, 
divided by the amount, gives the value per 100 lbs. The 
showing is certainly a favorable one, and with thrifty pigs 
from 20 to 30 cents per 100 lbs. ought to be and can be real- 
ized for skim-milk when live hogs sell at 4 cents per pound. 
It must be constantly kept in mind, however, that they must 
be sold by the time they reach a live weight of from 200 to 
230 lbs. 

FEEDING WITH GRAIN ALONE. 

Table V gives the results of feeding with corn-meal and 
middlings: 
9 



130 



AMERICAN DAIRYING. 



TABLE V. 





' LOT ONE. 


LOT TWO. 




Valt^e of 
gam at 
ic.perlh. 


Cost ot 
grain tea. 

$2.41 
8.29 

$10. TO 


Cost Oj 
gam per 
pound. 

3.8 ctF. 
5.6 cts. 

5.0 cts. 


Value oj 
gain at 
ic. per Lb. 

$2.04 

3.14 

6.96 

$12.14 


Cost ot 
grain fed. 

$1.61 
3.61 
11.02 

$16.25 


Cost ot 
gain ijer 
pound. 


1 


$2.54 
5.92 

$8.46 


3.1 cts. 


2 




3 


4.6 cts. 


4 




5 

Total 


6.3 cts. 


Average 


5.3 cts. 



This table seems conclusive so far as these pigs were con- 
cerned, and we are obliged to say that on grain alone there 
was a loss of more than one cent for every pound of growth. 

These results show us that we cannot blindly follow the 
teachings of feeding tables, for should we so do one of these 
rations would be as good as the other, but as a matter of fact, 
while chemically the skim-milk ration was not quite as rich 
in nutritive material as the grain ration, yet the former was, 
on an average, 30 per cent more efficient in actual results 
than the latter. 

"Table IV" is a highly interesting and valu- 
able one. Prof. Whitcher in the work here 
tabulated charges the corn-meal at cost and 
gives the skim-milk credit for the balance of 
the gain. This seems fair, as he shows in 
"Table V" that when corn-meal and middlings 
were fed the cost of producing was one cent per 
pound more than the increase made by the 
skim-milk was credited with. 

In "Part II" of this bulletin F. W. Morse 
makes an interesting and instructive report 
of his work to determine the digestibility of 
rations. I wish again to call attention to the 
time this experiment covered — 19 weeks. This 



SKIM-MILK. 131 

makes it much more reliable and valuable than 
if it covered a short time. I use Prof. Whit- 
cher's conclusions entire: 

1. For each 100 lbs. of live weight eight pounds of skim- 
milk and four pjunds of corn-meal make an ample and well- 
proportioned daily ration. 

2. In the absence of skim-milk two and one-half pounds of 
corn-meal, two and one-half pounds of middlings, and eight 
pounds of water will give an equal amount of nutritive 
matter. 

3. One hundred pounds of digestible matter in the skim- 
milk and corn-meal ration was equal to 146.9 lbs. in the corn- 
meal and middlings ration. 

4. The superiority of the skim-milk ration is due in part, 
doubtless, to its greater digestibility; but still more, in my 
opinion, to the fact that there is less waste matter — that is 
indigestible matter — to be carried through the system, and to 
the noticeable difference in the character of the dung, men- 
tioned by Prof. Morse in "Part II" of this bulletin. The 
pigs on mixed grain invariably grew constipated, while 
those on skim-milk were not so affected. 

6. The cost of a pound of gain on skim-milk and corn-meal 
was 3.6 cents, on mixed grain ration, 5.2 cents. 

6. Digestible dry matter required to produce 100 lbs. of 
gain of live weight on skim-milk and corn- meal, 231 lbs., on 
mixed grain, 334i lbs. 

- j Lot 1 when dressed shrunk 19.6 per cent. 
( Lot 2 when dressed shrunk 18.4 per cent. 

8. Calling skim-milk worth 25 cents per 100 lbs. and we 
get the following balance she^t, on the basis of the cost as 
given in "Conclusion No. 5 ": 

30-lb. pig, first cost $2.00 

170 lbs. of growth on sTcim-milk and corn-meal, at 3.6 cts . 6. 12 

200-lb. pig cost '. $8.12 

which equals 4.06 cents per pound. 

30-lb. pig, first cost $2.00 

170 lbs. growth on corn-meal andmiddlings, at 5.2 cLs . . 8.84 

200-1 b. pig cost $10.84 

which equals 5.42 cents per pound. 



132 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

Massachusetts station work.— The Massa- 
chusetts Experiment Station has done a great 
deal of valuable work in the line of experimen- 
tation in pig-feeding. The following conclu- 
sions were drawn after closing its nineteenth 
experiment: 

Briefly stated, from a practical standpoint, these two ex- 
periments and many others made at the station teach us the 
following- lessons: 

1. Skim-milk, together with corn-meal, gluten-meal, wheat 
bran, gluten feed, maize feed, etc., combined as above stated, 
have proved healthy and profitable foods for the production 
of pork for our markets. 

2. With skim-milk reckoned at 1.8 cents per gallon, gluten 
feed from $21 to $23 per ton, and corn-meal at $23 to $24 per 
ton, we have been enabled in these experiments to produce 
dressed pork at from 4.6 to 5.3 cents per pound. The net 
cost of the dressed pork produced (obtained by deducting the 
value of the manure produced) was from 3.3 to 3.8 cents per 
pound. 

3. Farmers having a quantity of skim-milk at their dis- 
posal can utilize it profitably by feeding it to growing pigs, 
as above described. If this milk can be sold, however, at 1 
cent per quart, or more, it would undoubtedly be more profit- 
able to sell it than to use it in the production of pork. 

4. Experiments made at this station have proved that it 
is not profitable to feed pigs after they reach a weight of 180 
to 190 lbs., excepting perhaps when pork commands an ex- 
ceptionally high price. Fed beyond this weight the food 
consumed increases and the percentage of gain in live weight 
steadily decreases, so that the daily cost of food consumed is 
more than the value of the daily increase in weight. This 
fact has since been confirmed by other stations. 

Ex-Gov. Hoard's work.— Several years ago 
ex-Gov. Hoard made an experiment in feeding 
skim-milk to pigs. The pigs weighed 100 lbs. 



SKIM-MILK. 133 

each and cost M cents per pound. They were 
fed 56 days on clear skim-milk which was 
weighed to them daily and fed sweet. At the 
end of 56 days they were sold and the growth 
figured at 4^ cents per pound paid 22^ cents per 
100 lbs. of skim-milk fed. As Gov. Hoard says, 
this work was not done under the best condi- 
tions nor in the most economical way, as it 
would without doubt have paid better to feed 
some kind of grain food with the skim-inilk. 

C. P. Goodrich's work.— Mr. C. P. Goodrich 
of Fort Atkinson, Wis., kindly gave me the re- 
sults of some experimenting he did in feeding 
pigs. 

A bunch of six-months-old i^igs weighing 125 
lbs. each were divided into three lots as nearly 
equal as practicable. 

Lot 1 was fed entirely on skim-milk and made 
5 lbs. growth from 100 lbs. of skim-milk. 

Lot 2. was fed entirely on corn and made 10 
lbs. growth from one bushel of 70 lbs. of ear 
corn. 

Lot 3 was fed skim-milk and corn in propor- 
tion of one bushel of corn to 100 lbs. of skim- 
milk. This combination produced 18 lbs. of 
growth. This illustrates very nicely the econ- 
omy of feeding a combination ration. When 
the bushel of corn and the 100 lbs. of skim- milk 
were fed separate they made 15 lbs. of growth; 
when combined they made 18 lbs. of grow^th, 



134 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

Here is 20 per cent better results obtained from 
the combination of foods. And this is not all 
the meat in this nut by any means, as the 
farmer can feed three times as many pigs when 
he feeds one bushel of corn to 100 lbs. of skim- 
milk as he can when he feeds clear skim- 
milk, as the bushel of corn has in this case 
twice the feeding value of the 100 lbs. of skim- 
milk. I think it is fair to conclude from this 
work that there is twice the profit when the 
skim-milk is fed with the proper amount of 
grain food than when fed alone. This is in line 
w^ith my own experience and also with much 
experiment station work. Mr. Goodrich is a 
farmer and did this work for his own informa- 
tion. 

Salt, ashes, and copperas. — Keep a mixture 
of ashes, salt, and copperas by the pigs and 
hogs at all times. Mix one bushel of ashes, 
eight quarts of salt, and four quarts of copperas. 
Put in a trough where it is dry and accessible 
at all times. It will keep them clear of worms 
and lice and help promote thrift. My hogs 
consume a barrel of copperas annually. 

Skim-milk for calves. — Skim-milk as a food 
for calves, and especially separator skim-milk, 
is underestimated very much by dairymen in 
general. I teach the calves to drink their 
mother's milk. The calf must have the first 
milk from its mother if not allowed to suck. 



SKIM-MILK. 



135 



The milk must be fed the calf when drawn. 
This is a law of Nature and must not be ignored. 
If it is there will be trouble and the calf injured 
or ruined. My calves are fed new milk for a 
few days; then we begin to mix some skim- 
milk and increase it until the new milk is 
drox)ped entirely. 

Rules for calf-feeding.— There are a few 
simple rules to follow in growing calves on 
skim-milk and there will seldom be any trouble. 
The milk must be sweet; it must be as warm 
as the mother's milk, or 98 deg., and care must 
be exercised not to feed too much milk. Four 
quarts at a feed twice per day is sufficient 
for the average-sized calf for the first month. 
Add a spoonful of oil-meal to each feed of 
milk. Let them eat what oats or shorts and 
hay they will. Oats are an excellent feed for 
young calves. Never feed a young calf cold 
milk. Mauy times calves are injured by being 
fed too much milk, especially skim-milk. Many 
persons apparently think that because the cream 
is taken out they need to feed more of it. This 
is a mistake. Overfeeding causes the calf to 
scour. This is the greatest cause of scours. 

Remedy for scours. — The calves must be 
watched and when there is a tendency to loose- 
ness of the bowels feed less milk. If this does 
not remedy the trouble heat some skim- milk to 
the boiling point, then cool it and feed the calf. 



136 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

If taken in time tliis will check it. I raise 
about thirty heifer calves every winter on 
separator skim-milk and have not had an un- 
thrifty calf in two years. Linseed-meal is an 
excellent food to use with skim-milk. My 
practice is to add a spoonful to the milk at the 
time it is fed. 

Keep calves dry. — Great care must be taken 
to keep the calves dry at all times. This re- 
quires a large amount of bedding. Calves will 
not thrive unless kept dry. I have had grade 
Short-horn calves gain two and one-half pounds 
each per day when four to five months old and 
were fed skim- milk, corn- meal and timothy 
hay. These were steer calves that were fed 
for veal. My heifer calves that I raise for 
cows I do not want to get fat, but keep them 
in a thrifty condition and growing all the time 
until they become mothers. A bunch of nice, 
thrifty calves is one of the prettiest sights on 
a farm. 

Massachusetts station work. — The Massa- 
chusetts Experiment Station after a number 
of years' experiments (one object of which was 
to learn the value of skim-milk as a pig food) 
commenced some work to learn the value of 
skim-milk as a food for young calves. In this 
work there were seven calves, each kept, 
weighed, and fed independent of the others, so 
there were seven trials going on at the same 



SKIM-MILK. 187 

time. A summary of results shows that when 
live weight sells for four and one-half cents per 
pound the average of the seven calves returned 
three-fourths of a cent per quart for the skim- 
milk fed. This would be the same as 35 cents per 
100 1 bs. These calves were fed ten weeks and 
gained an average of one and one-half pounds 
per day. 

Dr. Goessman's comments on the results I 
use entire: 

The experiments have shown that calves grown upon 
skim-milk alone or upon skim-milk and grains during the 
first eight weeks of their lives make good gains in live 
weight, namely, from 0.9 to 2.13 lbs. per day, with an aver- 
age of 1.49 lbs. These animals, however, put on very little 
fat, either when fed on skim-milk alone or when fed on skim- 
milk and grains. They were not able to digest the neces- 
sary amount of corn-meal, Buffalo gluten feed, or wheat 
flour or middlings, when fed in connection with the nitrog- 
enous milk, to promote the formation of fat. 

The meat of the animals thus described was quite white 
in appearance, but not as tender as calves that were fed 
whole milk. The ribs and flanks of animals thus fed were 
thinner than those consuming whole milk, and the shrinkage 
in dressing is from 5 to 7 per cent more. 

Butchers offered from 4 to 4J cents per pound of live 
weight, whole-milk veal being worth at the time 5i to 6 
cents per pound. It is to be remarked, however, that at 
retail as much per pound was charged for the skim-milk as 
for the whole-milk veal. It will be noticed that when skim- 
milk veal, so called, brought 4 cents per pound of live weight, 
an average of 0.63 of a cent per quart, or 2.52 cents per gal- 
lon, was obtained for the skim-milk fed; while when live 
weight brought 4i cents per pound the return for the skim- 
milk was 0.76 of a cent per quart, or 3 cents per gallon. 
When the skim-milk was fed to pigs, and dressed pork 



138 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

brought 51 cents per pound, there was a return of 0.2 of a 
cent per quart for the milk; and when dressed pork brought 
7 cents per pound, 0.6 of a cent was obtained per quart for 
the milk and 0.7 of a cent was obtained when dressed pork 
brought 7i cents per pound. 

These results are interesting and instructive, and worthy 
of the careful consideration of dairy farmers. It must be 
admitted that calves require rather more attention than pigs. 
The milk must not be sour and must be fed warm, and their 
condition must be carefully watched lest they be attacked 
with scours- A small quantity of lime water added to the 
milk at each feeding seems to act as a preventive. 

No beneficial results were noticed when cod-liver oil was 
fed in small quantities to calf 7. Its smell and taste were 
obnoxious to the calf, and quite often he refused the milk 
containing it. 

The experiment indicates that in order to secure the 
greatest profit it is not wise as a rule to feed calves as above 
described after they have reached 160 lbs. of live weight. 
The daily gain decreases and the food consumption steadily 
increases, so that the commercial value of a pound of live 
weight is about balanced by the cost of the food consumed to 
produce it. 

This experiment is presented as the beginning of a series 
designed for the purpose of studying the most economical 
way in which to feed skim-milk to growing calves, especially 
to calves intended for veal. Whole milk forms a complete 
food for calves, and by its use they can be sold from five to 
seven weeks from birth in a fat condition. How to secure 
a food equal in its effect to whole milk by utilizing the skim- 
milk and substituting a cheaper fattening material in place 
of the cream removed, is the problem for future solution. 

Indiana station work.— The Indiana Exper- 
iment Station "Bulletin No. 47," November, 
1893, reports the results of four experiments 
made in feeding calves. In experiment No. 1 
were two calves, one of which was fed skim- 



SKIM-MILK. 139 

milk and one whole milk. They were fed G2 
days. The one fed skim-milk consumed 19.3 
lbs. per day and gained 78 lbs. in 62 days, a 
daily gain of IJ lbs. The calf fed whole milk 
draak 11.9 lbs. per day and gained 73 lbs. in 62 
days, a daily gain of 1.17 lbs. 

Estimating the skim-milk at 25 cents per 100 
lbs. the 78 lbs. of growth on this calf cost $3; 
cost per pound, 3.84 cents. With the calf fed 
whole milk, estimating it to be worth $1 per 
100 lbs., the 73 lbs. of growth cost $7.42, or over 
10 cents per pound. These calves were both 
pure-bred Jerse^^s. There was but one day's 
difference in their ages. The one fed skim-milk 
was a male and the one fed whole milk a 
female. 

In experiment No. 2 pure-bred Holstein- 
Friesian male calves were used. These calves 
were fed 61 days. The calf on skim-milk diet 
was fed 23.5 lbs. per day and gained 1.77 lbs. 
per day. The calf fed whole milk drank 17.6 
lbs. daily and gained 1.67 lbs. per day. In this 
experiment with the calf fed skim-milk the 
growth cost 3J cents per pound, estimating the 
skim-milk at 25 cents per 100 lbs., and the calf 
fed whole milk made growth at a cost of 10| 
cents per pound, estimating the milk to be 
worth $1 per 100 lbs. 

Two other experiments were made in which 
skim-milk only was fed. Prof. Plumb says in 
closing: 



140 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

Taking- the average result of the above six calves fed 
skim-milk, 15.6 lbs. skim-milk produced a gain of 1 lb. live 
weight. 

Will it pay to feed calves simply skim-milk as has been 
done in the above examples? The six calves consumed 9,345 
lbs. of skim-milk to make a gain of 598 lbs. This inci«eased 
gain in this locality would sell for five cents a pound , or 
$29.90. The milk drank, estimating its market value at 15 
cents per 100 lbs., would cost $14.02, showing a difference of 
$15.88. 

The writer believes that a still greater gain would have 
been made by these calves if the fat removed from the milk 
had been replaced by flaxseed or some other substitute. 

Taking the growth of these six calves — 598 
lbs., worth 5 cents per pound — we have $29.90 
to be credited to the 9,345 lbs. of skim-milk, 
which is 32 cents per 100 lbs. 

Mississippi station work. — The Mississippi 
Experiment Station (report of 1888, page 43) 
found that calves receiving 10 lbs. of skim-milk 
made nearly as large gains as those receiving 8 
lbs. of whole milk. 

Iowa station work. — The Iowa Experiment 
Station in ^'Bulletin No. W reports the cost of 
producing a pound of gain (estimating new 
milk at 87 cents per 100 lbs., skim-milk at 15 
cents per 100 lbs., grain at 1 cent per pound, 
hay at $5 per ton, and flaxseed-meal at 3^ cents 
per pound) was 7.6 cents for the fresh milk and 
5 cents for the skim-milk ration. 

Pennsylvania station work. — The annual 
report of the Pennsylvania State College for 
1891 gives the results of work done with whole 



SKIM-MILK. 141 

milk and skim-milk fed to calves. In the'sum- 
mary of results they say: ^^Counting whole 
milk at $1 per 100 lbs. and skim-milk at 12 
cents per 100 lbs., it cost 9.9 cents to make a 
pound of increase when whole milk was fed, 
and 3.4 cents to make a pound of increase when 
skim-milk was fed." 

Separator milk good. — The Vermont Ex- 
periment Station Report of 1891 says: ''There 
is a belief quite prevalent among certain 
classes that the separator has some mysterious 
influence on the skim-milk to make it of dif- 
ferent quality from the skim-milk of ordinary 
setting. This difference is considered to extend 
not merely to the fat but to influence the other 
ingredients. To ascertain the truth of the 
matter three samples of milk were tested before 
and after being run through the separator." 
After concluding the work with the samples 
the station. says: ''It is evident from these fig- 
ures that the milk serum is not influenced by 
the separator and that the only difference 
between the whole milk and the skim- milk 
derived from it is in the amount of fat they 
contain." 

Buttermilk. — There is probably very little 
difference in the feeding value of skim-milk 
and buttermilk. Some farmers prefer butter- 
milk to skim-milk. One reason for this is that 
it does not curdle and separate so quickly as 



142 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

skim-milk. Another reason is that previous to 
the introduction of the Babcock test the butter- 
milk contained considerable more fat than the 
separator skim-milk did. At the present time 
with skill at the cream vat and churn there is 
not much difference in the percentage of fat 
in the two. Some may ask what the Babcock 
test has to do with the churn? A great deal. 
With it we tested the buttermilk daily and 
commenced to investigate for the causes of the 
differences in different day's work until we are 
able to churn nearly as close as we can skim. 

Buttermilk should be fed carefully to young 
pigs, as it is more apt to physic than skim-milk 
is. Especially is this the case with buttermilk 
from the shallow-setting system. I nearly 
ruined a bunch of fifty pigs before learning 
this. Since that time I have found old farmers 
who had known this for a long time. Butter- 
milk can be safely fed to calves by changing 
gradually from whole or skim-milk, but the 
change must be gradual or there will be 
trouble. 

The figures on the following page from the 
Vermont Experiment Station report of 1891 
show the analyses of skim -milk and buttermilk. 

This work shows the skim-milk to have a 
larger percentage of total solids than the butter- 
milk, but the buttermilk has the largest per 
cent of fat. The skim-milk has a trifle the 





i 

M 

Q 
H 

O 
Z 

i 

13 


SKIM-MILK. 

FaZi^e per ^ 
ton. ^i 




: S S S 


!2q 
o 
t— 1 


Poias/i. . . . 


1 ^ ^ 




; 1 1 1 


125 


Phosphoric 
acid. 






^ J2 ^ 

d d d 


O 


Nitrogen . . 


.- ^* S : 




CD O QO 

iO -* Tt< 

d d d 




CO 

H 

Q 
W 
K 

O 


Ash 


1 ^ r"^ g g g § O 

*^ odd d d d d 




Milk 

sugar. 


^ S ■^ lO rfJ LO •rf lO 


H 
P 
pq 


Albumen. . 


5-*JOOOiOOO 
^ 5i t— . Ci rfi r- O CD 

^ '^ c> <6 d> <6 d> <6 


< 


Casein 


°^ o oi c6 r-^ .(m' (m" oj 


1-1 


Fat 


Rh ^ Tt^ o6 ci d qc d 


1— 1 
M 


Total 

solids. 


^ ^ ^ - s ^ ^^ ^' 


O 

GQ 
Hi 






3 5 

§ a a 
-^^ ^"^ ^^ 


^ ' ^ 




a a a 

<D O O 

III 


1 i1 

a i s 

cc O cq 



143 



144 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

most casein, albumen, and ash, while the but- 
termilk has the most milk sagar. 

Analyses made at the Massachusetts Experi- 
ment Station show the average total solids of 
skim-milk to be 9.48 per cent and of fat 0.39 
per cent, and the average total solids of butter- 
milk were 8.33 per cent and of fat 0.27 per cent. 

Experiment station work. — The work done 
by the experiment stations of the United States 
with the object of showing the feeding value of 
skim -milk and buttermilk as a food for calves 
and pigs would make a good-sized book and I 
should like to have this work all gathered into 
one book. The fact that the experiment sta- 
tions have done so much work in this line is 
evidence to me that they believe as I do — that 
is, that the feeding value of skim-milk is not 
appreciated by the average dairyman. 

I am anxious to have some work done to show 
the comparative value of sweet skim-milk and 
rotten sour milk, such as the patrons of a 
creamery get where the milk is allowed to run 
into an underground vat that is seldom empty 
and never cleaned. There are comparatively 
few creameries that handle their skim-milk in 
this way, but those that do ought to be court 
martialed. 



PART II -CREAMERY WORK 



CHAPTER I. 



CARE OF MILK 13Y PATRONS. 



Cooling. — As fast as clrawn the milk should 
be strained and some system of cooling and 
aerating applied to it. A cooler like the Star 
cooler is very efficient for this work. It can be 

purchased of any dairy 
implement dealer. It 
will cool the milk with- 
in a few degrees of the 
temperature of the wa- 
ter used and aerate at 
the same time. 

Aerating. — When the 
milk cannot be both 
cooled and aerated it 
can certainly be aerat- 
ed, as that does not re- 




STAIl COOLER AXD AERATOR. 



quire water. When 
aerating be careful that it is done in a good at- 
mosphere, as it is possible to do the milk more 
harm than good if the atmosphere is impure. 
The general practice in locations that I am 

familiar with is for patrons of creameries, con- 
dor) 



148 



AMERICAN DAIRYING. 



densed-milk factories, and milk shippers to 
have the cans set in cold water (running water 
if it can be had) and the milk agitated while 
cooling. 

Agitation. — A 
tin disc four in- 
ches in diameter, 
with a galvanized 
wire handle about 
thirty inches long 
and used like a 
churn dash, is an 
excellent device to 
agitate milk when 
cooling. 

Vat for cans.— 
Have a wooden vat 
a few inches wider 
than the cans and 
deep enough to 
have the water 
come as high a.s 
the milk in the 
can. With fre- 
quent agitations 
during the time of 
milking the milk 
can be thoroughly cooled with but little time 
spent al)out it. 

As the milker goes to the vat with milk he 




THE IOWA CAN. 



CARE OF MILK BY PATRONS. 149 

should agitate the milk that is alread}^ cooling, 
and in this way it is nearly all cooled when the 
milking is done. 

Do not mix.— The night's and morning's milk 
should not be mixed; it should be kept in sep- 
arate cans. If from any cause it is necessary 
to mix the two milks they should be thorough- 
ly cooled first. The Elgin condensed-milk fac- 
tories require their milk to be cooled quickly 
to 55 deg. and to be delivered at the factory at 
a temperature of 60 deg. or below. This is an 
important part of the patron's work, as the 
creamery cannot make fine butter out of bad 
milk. It is a part of the work that patrons are 
inclined to neglect, and they apparently think 
that if their milk passes the weigh can they are 
all right. They are half right, as the man at 
the weigh can should not receive milk that is 
not all right. 

Return bad milk.— It should be returned to 
the patron as often as is necessary to teach him 
that bad milk will not pass. The creamery 
man must do this to protect himself and the 
other patrons, as one patron's bad milk would 
act as a ferment for the whole vat of milk and 
there would be off-flavored butter, making a 
loss for some one and a loss of reputation to 
the man operating the creamery, as poor butter 
will not pass on the good reputation of the 
maker. 



150 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

Unnecessary loss. — I have in my mind a 
creamery that lost over fonr hundred dollars in 
one month through poor butter. The cause I 
do not know, but it could have been prevented, 
no matter what the cause, for if none but good 
milk had been received and the work properly 
done the butter would have been all right and 
the loss would not have occurred. Now the 
party must establish confidence in his goods 
again after he has overcome the trouble, and 
his customers will be a long time in regaining 
full confidence, as they will think he stumbled 
once and may again. Perhaps this is not quite 
in place here, but I write it to show patrons 
that they have a responsibility in the matter 
beyond simply getting their milk into the 
weigh can. 

Spring wagons necessary. — Milk should be 
drawn to the creamery or its destination in a 
spring wagon to prevent churning and to save 
the cans. I have seen milk that had been 
drawn a long distance without springs that had 
become churned and butter was floating on the 
top. This makes a loss, as the butter thus 
churned cannot be utilized. The saving in cans 
and on horses will pay well for the springs. 

Canvas covers. — All milk delivery wagons 
should have a cover of some kind. A canvas 
or ducking cover will do good service and is 
quite generally used as a protection in summer 



CARE OF MILK BY PATRONS. 151 

from heat and in winter from cold. Be cleanly 
about your work and deliver your milk in 
prime condition, and then you have a right to 
demand good returns. Very few realize how 
susceptible milk is to absorbing any impurities 
there may be in the atmosphere. 

Milk absorbing odors. — In one instance I 
found milk that was not just right and I could 
not tell positively what the trouble was until I 
took some of it and warmed to 110 deg., when 
I could detect the odor of the hog-pen. I sent 
word by the driver of the load for the man to 
come in, as I wanted to see him. When he 
came I learned from him that he put his night's 
milk in an open vat in a room a short distance 
from his hog-pen and left the windows open to 
cool the room. The result was that when the 
wind blew from the hog-pen toward the milk- 
house the milk received the hog-pen odor and 
brought it to the creamery. A gentleman in 
Vermont told me of his experience with a 
skunk around the milk-house. When his but- 
ter arrived in Boston his commission man de- 
tected the skunk odor in the butter. 

i^ad conditions. — Milk will not only absorb 
impurities after being draw^n from the cow, but 
it may be spoiled before by filthy surround- 
ings of the cow. I have known of milk being 
spoiled by the carcass of a dead animal lying 
in the cow pasture. I once traced trouble with 



152 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

my butter to a row of calves that were tied in 
front of the cows of a patron and were not kept 
clean or dry. This impure atmosphere that the 
cows were breathing contaminated the milk. 
The butter was not very bad when new but it 
went to the bad at a very rapid rate, and in a 
few days was not fit to use. 

After the milk is thoroughly cooled, if to be 
kept in a pure atmosphere leave the can covers 
off, but if the air is not good put the covers on 
the cans, or what is better, remove it to some 
place where the air is good. Very few dairy- 
men realize how readily milk absorbs odors. 
To unbelievers I w^ould say to convince you, 
take an open dish with milk in it and put it in 
some place exposed to bad odors for a few 
hours; then warm the sample of milk to a tem- 
perature of 110 or 120 deg. and you will find 
that a person who is acquainted with the odor 
it has been exposed to can tell you where the 
milk has been. There are plenty of places 
where you can put this milk to make the test; 
for instance, in the vegetable cellar or by the 
cook stove when cooking vegetables, or you 
may set it away with the kerosene oil-can. I 
advise all that are skeptical on this point to try 
it. Do not say you do not believe it. That 
proves nothing. I once traced bad-flavored 
milk to hay from the bottom of a mow where 
it had lain on the ground and become moldy. 



CARE OF MILK BY PATRONS. 153 

I remember in my early experience of buy- 
ing butter at my grocery store that I could 
taste mayweed in very distinctly. How that 
flavor got there I never learned but supposed 
the cows ate the weed. 

An object lesson. — At a dairy school in 1892 
we one day let a can of bloody milk go into the 
day's work to show the class the result. We 
found bloody matter on the wall of the sepa- 
rator and a very bad flavor to the cream the 
next morning. We also found the same flavor 
in the butter, and we immediately disposed of 
the butter on its merits. 

I think I have given enough facts about the 
susceptibility of milk and cream to absorb 
odors from the surrounding atmosphere to con- 
vince any unbelievers. If not they must be con- 
vinced by some one else or go their own way 
until they get an experience that costs them 
enough to cause them to remember it. Many 
of us are so constructed that we cannot profit 
by others' experience; we do not appreciate in- 
formation that costs us nothing. 



CHAPTER II. 



EECEIVma MILK AT CREAMERY. 

The person receiving milk at a creamery is 
filling an important position. A lack of care, 
good judgment, or decision may cause trouble 
with all the work in the creamery. It requires 
constant care to hold the patrons up to grade 
with their milk so far as condition goes. There 
are always a few negligent ones that must be 
watched, as they will not cool nor aerate unless 
compelled to; neither will they keep their cans 
clean unless looked after. 

Need of tact. — It requires considerable tact 
to handle a lot of patrons without friction. 
Most any person can empty cans and weigh 
milk, but this is not the vital parb of the work. 
We must refuse to receive milk that we cannot 
make fine butter from. I have done a little 
work in the line of pasteurizing — enough to 
satisfy me that there are great possibilities in 
the near future. Some of our experiment sta- 
tions are at w^ork in this line and we shall have 
valuable information from that source in the 
near future without doubt. Get your names 

(154) 



RECEIVING MILK AT CREAMERY. 



155 



on the mailing list of your experiment station. 
Keep in touch with them; they will do you 
good if you will let them have an opportunity. 
We must not on any account lose our grip 
here. The idea of needing anything in this 
line to enable us to make fine butter creates a 
small rebellion in my mind, as I fear it would 
stimulate the negligent element. 

The expert. — It is interesting to watch an 
expert at the weigh can. His nose becomes as 
sensitive to bad odors as 
a trained hunting dog's 
for game. He acts with- 
out thinking. If there 
is anything suspicious 
the can cover goes to his 
nose or his nose to the 
can and when the can is^ 
emptied his hand goesi 
into the can and his 
thumb-nail is run around 
the corners for indications of uncleanliness, 
which when found causes the patron to receive 
warning that more care is necessary, or per- 
haps the milk is too much off flavor and is re- 
turned to the patron. 

Need of decision. — There must be no slip- 
shod work here, no excusing of neglect on the 
part of the patrons. There is too much at 
stake, as one lot of poor milk might injure the 




WEIGH CAN. 



156 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

whole day's goods. Any bad flavor develops 
fast and breeds trouble and loss. Do not re- 
ceive bad milk from any one. If the patron 
gets angry and talks hatefully put the brake 
on your tongue and let him do all the talking. 
He will soon get tired and quit. If you cannot 
convince him that his milk is in bad condition 
warm a sample of it to 120 deg.; it will then 
give off its bad flavor so plainly that he must 
be convinced if he has any use of his nose. 

Absorbing bad odors. — At a dairy school I 
once had a sample of milk set in a calf pen for 
a few hours, then warmed to 110 deg. Fah. and 
passed around the class, which knew nothing 
about where it had been exposed. It was in- 
teresting to watch the expressions of the dif- 
ferent faces; some were surprised and some 
disgusted. At another time I had a sample put 
into the silo for a short time and when brought 
to the class at a temiDcrature of 110 deg. Fah. 
they all found the flavor of silage in the milk, 
and all that were acquainted with silage recog- 
nized its flavor in the milk. 

Taking composite samples. — Most of the 
creameries are now paying for milk on its 
butter value. This is the longest step in ad- 
vance that has been taken in the dairy and 
creamery field. The man at the weigh can is 
the one that starts this part of the work on its 
way, as he takes the sample that is to be tested 



RECEIVING MILK AT CREAMERY. l-)! 

to show the comparative value of each patron s 
milk. This requires care. Nearly all cream- 
eries are now using the composite plan of test- 
ing, which need not be described. This re- 
quires a sample to be taken every day and put 
into the composite jars. These samples are 
taken in various ways; some dip out of the 
weigh can as soon as the milk is emptied, de- 
pending on the pouring of the milk into the 
can to do the mixing. Others take a sample 
with a tube or "milk thief." which takes a 

"MILK THIEF." 

column of milk out of the can, and some tap 
the conductor head and set a cup under it so 
as to to get a small stream as the can empties. 
ScoveU's sampling tube.— Prof. Scovell in- 
troduced in the work of the Columbian dairy 
test a novel and practical device — a tube with 
openings in the side at the bottom and a cap 



m 



SCOVELL S SAMPLING TUBE. 



that when pulled out left the holes open for 
filling. This could be inserted in the milk, 
filling as it was lowered and when it touched 
bottom a slight pressure forced the cap up over 
the openings so as to prevent the escape of any 
of the milk until removed from the can. This 



158 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

device not only secures a correct sample of the 
milk but it also secures the same per cent or 
relative amount of milk, as it gets twice as 
much in the sample when the weigh can is full 
as it will when it is half full. 

Preserving samples. — Bichromate of potash 
gives the best satisfaction as a preservative of 
anything I have used. It keeps the cream in 
a fluid condition and it does not adhere to the 
cans in which the composite samples are kept. 
With some of the preservatives the cream be- 
comes so leathery that it requires much care to 
secure a correct sample out of the composite 
jar for testing. 

Danger of too much heat. — I have found it 
necessary to heat such milk to near the point 
of melting the fat, and when the fat is melted 
it is very hard to get a correct sample, as the 
oil made by melting the fat will rise so 
rapidly that it requires quick work to catch a 
correct sample. Do not get the impression that 
there is any serious difficulty connected with 
doing accurate work all along this line; it sim- 
ply needs care and good common sense with a 
determination not to be hurried. 

Keep cool. — As a rule the person at the 
weigh can has several lines of the work to keep 
on his mind. In many cases he has the boilei* 
and engine and the separators to look after as 
well as the weigh can. The machinery must 



RECEIVING MILK AT CREAMERY. 159 

have attention and the patron is often in a 
hurry and demands that his milk shall he 
emptied in about five seconds after he drives 
up to the receiving-room. Many men do not 
have a faculty of properly dividing their atten- 
tion between the different lines of their work. 
Some will be hurried by the call of some loud- 
mouthed patron and neglect the separator or 
some other machinery, and get caught with 
low water in the boiler or a hot bearing in the 
separator. Another man will go to the other 
extreme and become irritated by the over- 
anxious patron and cause him to wait unneces- 
sarily long just to get even w^ith him or teach 
him he is not running that part of the work. 
I meet both these extremes in our creamery 
work, and they both show a weak point in the 
make-up of the person and it should be a study 
on his part to overcome it. It will pay him to 
do this. . 



CHAPTER III. 



THE BABCOCK MILK TEST. 
(by e. h. farrington.) 

One thing that surprised the writer during 
his six months of milk testing at the World's 
Fair was the ignorance displayed by so many 
agricultural visitors in regard to the Babcock 
test. Many had never heard of it. 

Satisfactory to scientists.— When the in- 
ventor gave this method of milk testing to the 
public it was first tried by chemists of experi- 
ment stations or persons who were somewhat 
familiar with the chemical actions involved in 
the process. They found the results obtained 
by it were accurate as compared with those of 
the gravimetric methods they had previously 
used for getting the per cent of fat in milk; 
and to them the making of a test was wonder- 
fully simple. The directions first sent out by 
Dr. Babcock with the test were sufficient in- 
structions for that class of workers to get good 
results. 

Not automatic. — As its field of usefulness 
broadened and the men who milked the cows 

(160) 



THE BABCOCK MILK TEST. 161 

began to use the tester it was soon discovered 
that the Babcock milk test was not an auto- 
matic machine. Althougli very simple to a 
chemist, it was found not to be like a clock 
which only needed to be wound up and left to 
run itself for ten mi antes to give accurate re- 
sults, but the wheels must be watched, the 
milk properly mixed, and the strength of the 
acid correct. 

Any milk can be tested.— It has generally 
been supposed to be easier to test a mixture of 
the milk of several cows than the milk of one 
cow, and that possibly there might be found a 
cow's milk which could not be successfully 
tested. The milk of each of 107 cows was 
tested at the World's Fair, and for four months 
there were made at least 150 tests of milk 
every day. This gave many tests of a great 
variety of milks. There was a great variation 
in the composition of these milks and in the 
characteristics and health of the cows. We 
were able to test successfully every one of 
these samples of milk and by proper manipu- 
lation to get a very clear separation of the fat. 

Investigate. — Any one who uses a Babcock 

test may profit by our experience in two points 

at least. First, he can have perfect confidence 

in the process as described by Dr. Babcock, that 

it has given and can give satisfactory tests of 

milk; and second, that if any one has trouble 
11 



162 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

with the test he can find out the diihculty him- 
self. Investigate for yourselves. Find a reason 
for occasional poor separations of the fat, if 
you have them. You can find a remedy your- 
self just as well as by applying to Dr. Babcock. 

A frequent difficulty. — The inquiries con- 
tained in some of the dairy papers seem to in- 
dicate that black or white stuff separating with 
the fat is the difficulty most frequently met 
with. This makes an obscure reading of the 
per cent of fat because of the indistinct separa- 
tion of the liquids. The common remedy sug- 
gested for this difficulty has been a change of 
acid. If there is ^^ black stuff" in the fat get a 
weaker acid; if a white curd separates in the 
fat column change to a stronger acid. That a 
too strong or a too weak acid may cause this 
trouble is undoubtedly correct in many cases, 
but not always. The manipulations of the test 
may also cause these defects. 

Points to be watched. — My experience with 
the Babcock test has taught me to follow the 
directions given by the originator of the method, 
and in doing so to keep a watchful eye on the 
following points: 

1. Mixing and temperature of the milk. 

2. Strength, temperature, and quantity of the 
acid. 

3. The way of pouring the acid into the milk 
in the test bottle. 



THE BABCOCK MILK TEST. 163 

4. Mixing the milk and acid in the test bot- 
tle. 

5. Adding the hot water, kind of water — hard 
or soft. 

6. Measuring the fat. 

7. The speed of the machine. 

8. Keep the acid bottle corked when not in 
use. 

These are not given in the order of their im- 
portance, neither are they supposed to cover 
every difficulty that may be met with in the 
use of the Babcock test. They represent some 
things that have had an influence on the proper 
w.orking of the test and there is a reason for 
every one of them. 

1. A thorough mixing of the milk, so that the 
fat is evenly distributed all through the sample 
to be tested, is sufficiently obvious and needs no 
explanation. 

2. The intensity of the action of the acid on 
the milk is shown by the fat separation in the 
neck of the test bottle, either by the color of 
the fat or by the black or white stuff that some- 
times separates at the bottom of the fat column. 
The black substance is probably charred fat and 
indicates too strong an action of the acid on 
the milk. The white adulteration of the fat 
shows too weak a reaction. The strength, tem- 
perature, and quantity of the acid used, as well 
as the temperature of the milk, all have an in- 



164 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

flueiice on the action of the acid on the milk. 
Too strong acid and warm acid or milk may be 
the cause of the black stuff in the fat. Hence 
it may be advisable to use a little less acid, or 
cool either the milk or acid, or both, before 
mixing the two liquids in the test bottle. On 
the other hand if a white curdy substance sep- 
arates with the fat this may be remedied by 
using a little more than the graduated full of 
acid or by warming the milk or acid 10 to 20 
deg. before making the test. None of these 
precautions w^ill be necessary if the acid has a 
specific gravity of 1.82 and both milk and acid 
are at 60 to 70 deg. Fah. when used. 

3. When measuring the acid into the test 
bottle hold it at an angle which will cause the 
acid to follow the inside walls to the bottom 
and not drop through the milk in the center of 
the bottle, because by the latter way of pouring 
the acid a portion of the milk may be acted on 
by the strong acid before it is diluted by the 
water of the milk. This makes a more intense 
action of the acid on a small part of the milk, 
and the fat it contains is somewhat decomposed 
and blackened. This black substance is then 
separated with the fat by the usual method of 
finishing the test. If properly poured into the 
test bottle there will be a distinct layer of milk 
and acid with little or no black color between 
them. 



THE BABCOCK MILK TEST. 165 

4. Thorougly mix the milk and acid as soon 
as measured into the test bottle. This is not 
always necessary, but for the same reason just 
mentioned a better separation of fat is some- 
times obtained hy mixing at once than by allow- 
ing the two liquids to stand partially mixed in 
the bottle, as often happens w^hen the acid is 
poured into the test bottle. 

5. Add the hot water in two portions and 
run the centrifuge after each addition of water. 
Use soft water for this purpose because many 
hard waters contain so much carbonate of lime 
that the carbonic acid set free by the sulphuric 
acid makes considerable foam at the top of the 
fat column. Some waters can be used to fill 
the test bottles without causing any foam if 
first boiled a short time or by adding a tea- 
spoonful of acid to about one quart of the 
water used for filling the test bottles. 

6. AVhen the test bottles are taken from the 
machine it is a good plan to put them into 
water at 140 to 160 deg. Fah. The fat is kept 
liquid at this temperature. Each end of the 
fat column can be distinctly seen and its 
amount measured. 

7. Too low results w^ill be obtained if the 
centrifuge does not have sufficient speed. The 
machines have to be watched, as constant use 
wears some of them so that the speed designed 
by the manufacturer is not obtained. 



166 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

8. Keep the acid bottle corked when not in 
use, because sulphuric acid takes up water from 
the air and is thus diluted or weakened. 

9. Wlien testing skim-milks and buttermilks 
which have a very small per cent of fat (two- 
tenths of one per cent or less) the reading of 
the per cent of fat should be made immediately 
on taking the test bottle from the centrifuge. 
If this is not done and the test bottle cools be- 
fore taking the reading the contraction of the 
liquid in the bottle will leave the fat spread 
over the inside surface of the measuring tube 
so that it is not seen but has the appearance of 
being only a dirty tube. If read when taken 
from the machine the small fat globules can be 
seen and estimated. 

The Babcock tested and proved. — The Bab- 
cock milk test was one of the things that made 
a "ten-strike" at the World's Fair. It went 
through a trial which gave it a very thorough 
test. An understanding of the daily records 
made by this test at the World's Fair ought to 
convince any fair-minded person that the Bab- 
cock milk test deserves the highest award. 
Some who had previously expressed doubts 
about its accuracy and practicability freely con- 
fessed their conversion. The awards given in 
the last or heifer test were based on the amount 
of butter-fat found in the different cows' milk 
by the Babcock milk tester. 



THE BABCOCK MILK TEST. 167 

The milk given by each cow was tested daily 
through all the different tests from May to 
November. During the two butter tests the 
skim-milk, buttermilk and butter were also 
analyzed. The amount of fat in these three 
products should be equal to that found by the 
tests of the milk from which they came. Dur- 
ing these butter tests three balance sheets of 
this kind were made daily, making a total of 
360 accounts. 

Each of these accounts included tests of 
twenty-five samples of milk on one side, and on 
the other tests of one sample each of skim- 
milk and buttermilk and an analysis of one 
sample of butter. The difference between 
these two records of the butter-fat was called 
mechanical loss. Sometimes it was gain. 

Figures from the test.— The complete rec- 
ords are not yet available, but the writer has 
312 of th-e total 360 comparisons which can be 
made. These include 120 Jersey, 90 Guernsey 
and 102 Short-horn records. They show the 
following results: 

The number of times there was a mecQanical 
gain was — Jersey 42, Guernsey 22 and Short- 
horn 19 per cent of the whole number of days. 
The greatest gain observed on any day was for 
the Jersey 1.22, Guernsey 1.31 and Short-horn 
0.81 lb. fat. The greatest loss was Jersey 1.93, 
Guernsey 1.63 and Short-horn 1.26 lb. fat. The 



168 AMERICAN DAIRYINO. 

average weight of fat unaccounted for daily 
was Jersey 0.35, Guernsey 0.37 and Short-horn 
0.38 lb. These weights of fat were for the 
Jersey 0.9, Guernsey 1.2 and Short-horn 1.4 per 
cent of the total weight of fat produced daily 
during the ninety-day test, or for the Jersey 
0.043, Guernsey 0.054 and Short-horn 0.052 per 
cent of the milk produced per day in the ninety- 
day test. 

Considering the great difficulty of getting a 
fair sample of forty pounds or more of butter, 
the analysis of which must come into every 
one of these 360 accounts, and the fact that the 
fat is measured in the test bottles instead of 
weighed, these results show very close work, 
not only by all the men connected with the 
Columbian dairy test but also by the Babcock 
milk test. 



CHAPTER IV. 



TEMPERING AND SEPARATING. 

Tempering milk for separating is apparently 
a very simple matter. At the same time there 
is a right way and a wrong way of doing it. 

Sudden heating. — Sudden heating is not ad- 
visable, as milk so heated separates harder thi'ii 
milk that has been gradually heated. This is 
no theory. It is a hard fact that I discovered 
in comparing the work of different creameries. 
The theoretical part comes in when I try to 
explain why this is a fact. This point devel- 
oped as follows: In one of our creameries we 
heated the milk for the separator with a jet 
pump, which does its work very suddenly. In 
another creamery the milk was heated mostly 
in the receiving vat. By the use of the Bab- 
cock test I found the most thorough skimming 
was being done at the creamery where the milk 
was heated in the large vat to near the proper 
temperature and finished up in the channel 
vat. The jet pump was in use in our home 
creamery where I had the very best opportu- 
nity to watch the work, but I could not secure 

(169) 



170 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

as good skimming as I did at the other cream- 
ery. 

The cause. — I studied for the cause of this 
for some time before the idea came to me that 
the manner of warming the milk might have 
something to do with the thoroughness of the 
separating. As soon as this thought came to 
me I commenced to warm the milk at the 
home creamery in the large vat and I found 
the separators doing as good work as at the 
othery creamery where the milk was warmed 
slowly. My theoretical explanation of the situ- 
ation is that the sudden heating expands the 
water in the milk faster than it does the fat 
and consequently there is not the difference in 
gravity of the cream and other elements in the 
sudden heated milk that there is in the gradu- 
ally heated milk where there has been time for 
the fats to become of the same temperature as 
the other elements in the milk. 

Channel vat. — It is not practicable in warm 
weather to do much warming in the receiving 
vat. In fact it is not necessary as a rule to 
warm the milk in hot weather for separating. 
I believe the channel vat to be the best device 
for tempering milk for separating. 

Be sure to secure this vat of a capacity that 
will not require forcing to get the milk to the 
proper temperature. If the tempering vat is 
too small the waters surrounding it will need 



TEMPERING AND SEPARATING. 



171 



to be so hot to secure the right temperature of 
the milk that it will cook the milk onto the 
vat. This is objectionable and unnecessary. 
Eighty to 85 deg. is a good temperature at 
which to separate. 

Quick cooling. — It may be done at a higher 
temperature when there is a way of cooling 
the cream immediately to a temperature of 55 
deg. or below. This is a vital point in the work 
and one that many butter-makers stumble over. 




ALPHA TEMPERING VAT. 



Care of separator. — When the milk has been 
tempered to the desired temperature it is ready 
to separate. The separator is run at a high 
velocity and needs good care. Be sure that the 
bearings are all well oiled before it is started, 
and especially is this necessary with a new ma- 
chine as the parts are all new and they fit close. 
There is more danger of heating a new ma- 
chine than after it has ran a time. Follow in- 
structions sent with the separators. Do not be 



172 



AMERICAN DAIRYING. 



too ready to get an idea that you know more 
about operating the separator than the man 




ALPHA NO. 1 BELT POWER. 



that invented it, for the probability is you do 
not and never will. 



TEMPBEING AND SEPARATING. 



173 



Smooth running necessary.-A separator 
JZun smoothly to doits best work; wheo 




ALPHA NO. I STEAM TURBINE. 



it trembles or shakes it is not doing itsljt 
work and it should be put in order immediately. 



174 



AMERICAN DAIRYING. 



You cannot afford to let .2 of 1 per cent of fat 
get away in the skim-milk. There should 
never be fat enough in separator skim-milk to 
cover the surface in the neck of the test bottle, 
and as an average of work done there should 
be no more than two or three drops of fat the 
size of pin heads around the neck of the test 
bottle. I know it to 
be thoroughly prac- 
ticable to do this kind 
of skimming as I see 
it done day after day 
and many creameries 
are doing it. 

Babcock test. — 
Look out for the mo- 
tion of your Babcock 
tester; also the tem- 
perature. If the mo- 
tion is too low it w411 
not secure all of the 
fat and you will de- 
ceive yourself on your 
work. It is advis- 
able to secure a rich 
cream. Some of the 
plained in the next chapter. 

Clean vs. close skimming. — There is a great 
difference in separators in this matter of close 
skimming and clean skimming. Some will 




SHARPLES RUSSIAN SEPARATOR. 



reasons for this are ex- 



TEMPERING AND SEPARATING. 



175 



take a smaller percentage of the milk as cream 
and still do more efficient work than others 
will. This is an important point, one reason of 
which is the fact that in hot weather there is 
danger of cream becoming too sour to make 
high-flavored butter, and cream rich in fat does 
not sour or ripen so fast as cream poor in fat. 




DAXISH-WESTOX CREAM COOLER 



A cream with 35 per cent of fat in it might in 
extreme hot weather have the right degree of 
acid at churning time to produce the best re- 
sults when if the separator had been adjusted 
to take a cream with 15 or 20 per cent of fat it 
would, nnder the same conditions as to tem- 
perature and time, have developed a degree of 



176 



AMERICAN DAIRYING. 



acidity that would have injured the flavor of 
the butter and probably caused a larger loss ot 
fat ill the buttermilk. 




Cool quickly.-As fast as separated the 
cream should be run over a cooler of some 



TEMPERING AND SEPARATING. 177 

style that will cool very quickly to the tem- 
perature of 55 cleg, or l^elow. This is a great 
help to the flavor of the butter. It helps very 
much to prevent the "summery" flavor or lack 
of flavor ill extreme hot weather. I consider 
the immediate cooling of the cream from the 
separator one of the vital points in butter- 
making. 

Capacity of separator. — The quantity of 
milk a separator will skim per hour depends 
on the temperature of the milk, the time since 
the cows were fresh and on the breed of the 
cows. Other points being the same the milk 
will skim the easiest that has the largest glol)- 
ules of cream. This will hold good with gravity 
raising of cream as well as witii the separator. 
I think it unnecessary to talk about gravity 
raising of cream in the creamery as I do not 
know of a milk creamery that does not use a 
separator for creaming the milk. 

How to remove cream from bowl. — When 
the separator is stopped from any cause pour 
in water at temperature of milk to take the 
cream out that is in the bowl or it will become 
so thick from being retained in the bowl while 
in motion that it will stop the cream outlet 
and cause trouble when it is started again. If 
the stop is at the end of the day's work the 
cream certainly needs to be all removed. 

The specific gravity of water is between that 



178 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

of cream and skim-milk and will fo): that rea- 
son take position between the skim-milk and 
cream and carry the cream or flush it out of 
the bowl. It is well to repeat this three or 
four times, leaving time enough between the 
acts for what cream there is to become sepa- 
rated and then flush it out. It is necessary to 
exercise care in getting the fat or cream all out 
of the separator bowl at the end of a run. I 
have seen separator bowls with more fat in 
them when taken out to be cleaned than there 
would be in 1,000 lbs. of the milk they had 
skimmed with this same machine. This was 
not the fault of the separator but of the oper- 
ator. If the bowl is flushed out three or four 
times with tepid water, allowing a few seconds' 
time between the flushings, there will be no 
larger percentage of fat in the contents of the 
bowl than there was in the skim-milk. 

Difference in separators.— There are many 
times large losses made in separating. I have 
operated separators that I could not skmi closer 
than .2 of 1 per cent of fat with and I have op- 
erated others that I could get to skim to a trace, 
or not enough to cover one-tenth of the surface 
of the test-bottle neck. 

Dairy school work.— Persons wishing infor- 
mation concerning work done by different sep- 
arators under the same conditions can secure 
valuable facts from the work at our dairy 



TEMPERING AND SEPARATING. 179 

schools. At the Peniis,ylvania State College 
dairy school in 1894 there were several samples 
of skim-milk tested with the gravimetric and 
the Babcock. The average of twelve samples 
was as follows: (Iravimetric, .095; Babcock, 
.063. Some of the gravimetric work showed as 
low as .01, .02 and .03 of 1 per cent in the skim- 
milk. The ^ew York Experiment Station at 
Ithaca in ''Bulletin No. 66" gives the result of 
work done at its dairy school in 1894, where 
seven separators were in operation. The work 
by the different separators showed great varia- 
tions. The best average work by any separator 
was .1 of 1 per cent of fat and the poorest work 
showed .29 of 1 per cent of fat. 

Tests of power required. — This bulletin 
also gives the results of tests made to show the 
horse power necessary to skim 1,000 lbs. of 
milk per hour. It will pay any creamery man 
to get this- " Bulletin No. 66." If creamery men 
all knew its value to them I am sure a new edi- 
tion of it would be necessary. The Director of 
the Veruiont Experiment Station (Prof. J. L. 
Hills) kindly lent me an abstract of their 1894 
dairy school work. They had eleven separa- 
tors in use during the term. The percentage of 
fat left in the skim-milk of the different ma- 
chines averaged as low as .06 of 1 per cent and 
as high as .21 of 1 per cent. They also made 
power tests of the separators. The Pennsyl- 



180 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

vania Experiment Station made power tests of 
separators at their dairy school in 1894. 

Value of station work. — I consider the tests 
of separators at our dairy schools of great value. 
There is no more reliable source of information. 
It is right in the line of work that they were 
created to perform and they are doing us good 
service that is sure to be appreciated more and 
more as the years go by and they develop as 
they are sure to do. I have just received "Bul- 
letin No. 22" of the Iowa Station, in which 
Prof. Henry C. Wallace gives the results of 
work done with separators during the six 
months ending June 10, 1894. The work done 
by four separators is reported. The per cent of 
fat in the skim-milk was as follows: 

One separator w^ith 61 trials showed an aver- 
age fat in skim-milk of .06. 

One with 52 trials showed an average fat in 
skim-milk of .07. 

One with 22 trials showed an average fat in 
skim-milk of .22. 

One with 54 trials showed an average fat in 
skim-milk of .08. 

Prof. Wallace says: "It should be remem- 
bered that the tests were made by dairy stu- 
dents during the course of their instruction and 
consequently do not represent the best work 
that can be done with these machines, although 
poi'jiaps fah'ly i'opr(^sonting the work done in 



TEMPERING AND SEPARATING. 181 

the average creamery." In the alcove quota- 
tion Prof. Wallace is talking of the three ma- 
chines doing the ]~)est work. It will pa}^ parties 
interested in separators to secure "Bulletin No. 
25." 

Butter accumulator. — A comparativelj^ new 
machine on the market is the ')utter accumu- 
lator manufactured at 
Bainbridge. N. Y. It 
receives the milk the 
same as the separator 
except the tempera- 
ture, which it is desir- 
able to have at 65 deg. 
Fahr. The cream is 
first separated the 
same as in the common 
separator, after which 
the cream drops into 
another compartment of the machine, where 
the separation is continued until w^e have but- 
ter and buttermilk, which are then delivered 
from the machine. We had one of them at 
the Pennsjdvania dairy school in January, 1894, 
for a few days. It of course makes what we 
call sweet-cream butter, but it has more flavor 
than any other sweet-cream butter I have ever 
seen. 




-"-^^ 



BUTTER ACCUMFLATOR. 



CHAPTER V. 



RIPENmO AND CHURNma CREAM. 

HaviDg finished the separating and cooling 
the cream to 55 deg. Fah. in the morning we 
will in the afternoon prepare it for ripening. 
It shonld be frequently agitated with some 
kind of an implement to remove the froth 
there may be on top of the cream, as there is 
some fat in this froth, and if it is left on top of 
the cream it will not ripen with the cream and 
will not churn so thoroughly. It will cause a 
larger per cent of fat in the buttermilk than 
if it is stirred in, or until it disap^Dears. If 
the separator has partly churned some of the 
cream in the operation of separating, it cannot 
be stirred in, as the butter will float. 

One cause of mottled butter.— This causes 
trouble in several ways. It will not take the 
color readily and will cause a mottled appear- 
ance in the butter, especially when new: but 
it will gradually disappear, or at least partially, 
when it is a few days old, probably taking color 
from the surrounding butter that has been 
colored. If there is much of it the flavor of the 

(182) 



RIPENING AND CHURNING CREAM. 183 

butter will be affected by it, as it was churned 
at the temperature of the milk at separating, 
which is usually high enough to kill the flavor 
of the butter. 

Temperature to ripen. — When the cream is 
in the desired condition it should be tempered, 
the temperature of setting depending upon 
when we wish to churn. If it is to be churned 
the following day it should be warmed up to 
68 to 70 deg. This operation requires care. It 
must be done gradually and not have the water 
surrounding the cream reach a temperature 
that will cause the cream to melt if allowed to 
stand without agitation while being warmed. 
Agitation expedites the work and prevents the 
cream that is in contact with the vat from be- 
coming overheated. I have known serious 
trouble with the flavor and grain of butter 
from careless work here. 

Use a starter. — To hasten or help in ripen- 
ing a starter may be used. Some use butter- 
milk for this purpose but it is not safe, as it 
carries from one day to the next, and if the 
flavor is once lost or gets bad the trouble 
is transmitted from day to day and so will 
go from bad to worse. Some use sour cream 
from the day's churning. There is the same 
objection to this as to the buttermilk. The 
best way is to make a starter from skim-milk, 
selecting the milk from a dairy of fresh cows 



184 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

(as it is the fresh cow's milk that imparts 
flavor) and skim it by itself and use it to make 
a starter. This should be made every day for 
the following day's use. For making the 
starter we use Boyd's starter vat. There are 
directions with it for its use. 

Temperature at which to hold. — If the 
cream is to be churned the second day after 
separated it should be held at a temperature of 
55 to 58 deg. This temperature will develop 
sufficient acid. The condition of the milk 
when received will have much influence on the 
development of acid, so much in fact that a 
rule cannot be made that will apply to all 
cases. Judgment must be used and experience 
is valuable in this work. If at any time there 
is trouble with the milk which causes a bad 
flavor to the cream it should not be ripened at 
a high temperature, as it will cause the bad 
element to develop rapidly and it will secure 
full possession of the cream vat, overcoming 
the starter entirely. Ripen off-flavored cream 
at a low temperature and agitate and aerate it 
as much as possible during the ripening pro- 
cess. 

Cooling for the churn. — When ripened and 
before churning it must be cooled to the de- 
sired temperature. My early experience with 
cooling cream was with the common cream 
vat with a space for water surrounding the 



RIPENING AND CHrRNING CREAM. 



1S5 



cream. This is a slow process and taxes a 
person's patience. Several years ago I devised 
a cooler consisting of a series of pipes like a 
single horizontal steam radiator. This is sus- 




GURLER'S CIRCULATIXG COOLER. 



pended in the vat and worked mechanically up 
and down ; at the same time cold water is run- 
ning through it constantly. I believe this to 
be the first circulating cooler used and it is not 



186 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

patented. This does very efficient work; it 
will cool a vat of cream from 70 de^. down to 
within 3 deg. of the temperature of the water 
used in a short time, a full vat requiring not to 
exceed thirty-five minutes. Care must be used 
here, as this rapid cooling of the cream does 
not harden the fat with the same degree of 
rapidity that the thermometer indicates it has 
cooled the cream. It is best to cool a few 
degrees cooler than you wish to churn, or con- 
tinue the cooling operation for a time to give 
the fat in the cream time to harden. 

Temperature to churn.— The temperature 
to churn is the next question. The old practice 
was 58 to 62 deg. This is the temperature at 
which a large majority churn to-day. 1 have 
been studying over this churning question for 
several years. My early work was in the line 
of acidity, which w^ork w^as done in connection 
with the Illinois Experiment Station and a 
bulletin issued which covered our work. But 
when the Babcock test was introduced I com- 
menced to use it on the buttermilk and secured 
results that surprised me very much. The va- 
riations in the percentage of fat were astonish- 
ing, the range being from .1 of 1 per cent up 
to 2 per cent (hco per cent). At the end of the 
first year I had learned that the churning was 
much more exhaustive in winter than it was in 
summer. I had supposed the opposite would be 



RIPENING AND CHURNING CREAM. 1S7 

the case, as I thought the cream from grass 
milk should ]}e more chuniable than that from 
dry food. 

After a while I began to think that the tem- 
perature was the key to unlock the secret, and 
I very soon satisfied myself that it was, and that 
a temperature of 50 deg. gave much more ex- 




KEY CITY KIXG. 



haustive churning than the old standard tem- 
perature of 60 deg. 

The next question was how to be sure of 
churning ripened cream at this low tempera- 
ture. We had known for a long time that 
sweet cream could be churned at a very low 
temperature; but my experience was like many 
others with ripened cream, i. e., it would not 
gather but would swell and froth and fill the 
churn full and cause an endless amount of 



188 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

trouble^ which could be overcome best by re- 
moving a part of the cream from the churn 
and making two churnings of the one. 

Low temperature requires rich cream. — 
After a time I got an idea that the richness of 
the cream in fat liad something to do with 
churning, and followed the idea which led me 
out of the trouble, as I found it to be a fact 
that ripened or acid cream with 35 per cent of 
fat could be readily churned and would gather 
at a temperature of 50 to 52 deg. I now mean 
that the buttermilk will be at 50 to 52 deg., 
and the butter after the buttermilk is drawn 
off will be at the same temperature. I have 
had men ridicule me when I told them it was 
practicable to churn at this low temperature, 
and have had men state before a public gath- 
ering that they did not believe me; but we 
are going right along doing it every day when 
the outside temperature is low enough so that 
the churn-rooms are cold enough to help us out. 

Temperature of churn-room. — The tem- 
perature of the churn-room has much to do 
with the change of temperature of the cream 
during the churning. When the churn-room 
is as cold as the cream in the churn the change 
of temperature of the cream during churning 
will be but a few degrees, depending upon the 
time required to churn. But if the tempera- 
ture of the churn-room is 20 deg. higher than 



SIPENING AND CHURNING CREAM. 



189 



the cream in the chum the cream will warm 
up very fast. I have learned that with a box 
or barrel churn in a room 15 deg. colder than 
the cream in the churn one hour's churning 
would not change the temperature of the 
cream. 

Advantages of low temperature.— Churn- 
ing at a low temperature not only gives more 
exhaustive churning but it gives better butter 
—butter with less foreign elements in it and 
with much better keeping qualities. Another 
point is that it requires less washing to re- 
move the buttermilk. This I consider a great 
advantage, as it is a fact that washing removes 
some of the delicate flavor of butter. In this 
line I recently made a test of a churning. 
The churning was 
stopped when the 
butter granules 
were the size of 
kernels of wheat, 
and the butter- 
milk, which was 
at a temperature straixee dippek. 

of 53 deg., was then drawn out; then one-third 
of the butter was taken out and salted and 
worked. The remahiing butter was washed 
once and then one-half of the contents taken 
out and salted and worked. The balance was 
then washed a second time and allowed to lie 




190 



AMERICAN DAIRYING. 



in the water about two hours, when it was 
taken from the churn and treated the same as 
the other two lots had been. From each of 
these lots was filled one tub and one ten-pound 
pail. The tubs were judged the following day 
by my brother, the butter- maker and myself, 
my brother and I not knowing anything about 
the butter except that we had a tub of each 
lot. We all agreed that the twice-washed had 
the least flavor, and two of us selected the but- 
ter that was not washed as the best in flavor of 
the three tubs and fully equal in every other 
way to the other butters. 

I also sent the three pails, one being out of 
each lot, to Mr. A. H. Barber, who was chair- 
man of the committee that judged the butter 
made in the breed contest at the Columbian 
Exposition. Mr. Barber also selected the pack- 
age that had not been washed as the best in 
flavor and body. I also sent a sample of each 
lot to our experiment station to be analyzed, 
and received the following analysis from Prof. 



Farrington : 












Fat. 


Water. 


Curd. 


Salt. 


Not washed 

Once washed. 


83.41 
83.83 
84.16 


12.86 
12.32 
12.16 


1.65 
1.13 

1.08 


2.14 

2.72 


Twice washed 


2.60 



Will unwashed butter keep?— Three months 
after this butter was made 1 was at the Illinois 



RIPENING AND CHUENING CREAM. 



191 



Experiment Station and found the samples I 
liad sent Chemist Farrington for analysis still 




preserved except what had been taken for the 
analysis. The samples had not been cared for 



192 



AMERICAN DAIRYING. 



ill the least except to keep the covers on the 
jars, there being no kind of a seal. I asked that 
the samples be set before me with private 




marks so that I could judge them without 
knowing which was which. I found no diffej-- 



RIPENING AND CHURNING CREAM. 



193 



ence in the flavor of the three. I expected to 
find that the samples that had been washed 
had kept the best but there was no difference. 




They had all kept well, there being no bad 
flavor; simply showing loss of freshness. I was 
surprised to find the flavor as good as it was. 



194 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

Look out for cream with small per cent of 
fat. — Ripened cream that has 15 per cent or 
less of fat in it cannot be churned at a very 
low temperature. Cream with a large amount 
of milk in it develops acid much faster than 
cream with a small amount of milk. This 
point must be looked after or there will be 
trouble from loss of flavor and also loss of fat 
in the buttermilk. 

Look out for acidity. — The greatest loss of 
fat in buttermilk that 1 have ever found came 
from excessively sour cream. Before we had 
the Babcock test we learned that too much 
acidity caused a loss of butter, but we thought 
then that the acid destroyed the fat; now we 
know better; we know that it in some way 
gets the cream in a condition that it does not 
deliver all of its fat. There is much less dan- 
ger of cream rich in fat becoming too sour than 
there is from cream that is poor in fat. I have 
tested buttermilk that 1 found 2 per cent of fat 
in, and I have tested hundreds of samples that 
I found less than .1 of 1 per cent in. I once 
tested a creamery daily for one week and found 
the first day less than .1 of 1 per cent; I read it 
.07 ; the other extreme was 1.2 per cent. This 
great difference was caused partly by the tem- 
perature and partly by difference in the acidity 
of the cream. 

The record was as follows: 



RIPENING AND CHURNING CREAM. 



195 





Tempera- 


TemperHure 
of but- 


Time of 


Per cent of 




ture at 


churn- 


fat in 




starting. 


termillk. 


ing. 


buttermilk. 


First day 

Second day. . . 


50 deg. 


53 deg. 


45 min. 


,07 


56 deg. 


58 deg. 


43 min. 


.60 


Fifth day 


53 deg. 


55 deg. 


35 min. 


.50 


Sixth day 


54 deg. 


56 deg. 


50 min. 


.50 


Ninth day 


57 deg. 


59 deg. 


30 min. 


1.20 



The man in charge of this creamery had been 
in our employ but a short time and we had not 
got him up to our standard at the time. He 
was doing all right in cold weather, but when 
the warm days of spring came he was caught 
off his guard, and also caught the patrons off 
their guard with their milk. A portion of this 
great loss came from the milk not having been 
properly cared for at the farm, and it was off 
flavor when received at the creamery and 
caused the cream to become too sour before it 
was churned. If it had been cooled thoroughly 
and churned the afternoon after it was skimmed 
it would have given more exhaustive churning 
and a better quality of butter. 

Washing butter,— When the cream is churned 
at a temperature of 62 to 66 deg. it will need 
several washings and the first washing should 
have salt added to it. This will help to sepa- 
rate the butter and buttermilk. It is well to 
use a brine wash in all cases, but there is not 
so much need of it when the butter gathers at 
a low temperature. I have seen the last that 



196 



AMERICAN DAIRYING. 



run from the churn when churned at 52 deg. 
and not washed look like whey, and our patrons 
would say that it was not buttermilk and ac- 




cuse us of watering it. A high temperature at 
churning gives us butter with less flavor, more 



RIPENING AND CHURNING CREAM. 



197 



foreign elements, less grain and solidity, and is 
therefore not to be recommended. 




Advantages of low temperature. — When 
butter gathers at a low temperature it can be 
better handled, it will receive the salt with less 



198 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

working, will have a better grain, and more of 
the desirable waxy texture. 

Churns. — I have used the box and barrel 
churn for twenty years. I will not make the 
claim that they are the best churns, but there 
are some good points about them. One is, that 
the cream has no place to adhere and not be- 
come equally churned. When cream can gather 
any place and not receive the necessary churn- 
ing it causes an increased loss in the butter- 
milk; here is where we have an advantage over 
the dash churn and other kinds that allow^ 
cream to accumulate above the cream line in 
the churn. Another advantage of the box and 
barrel churn is that the temperature of the 
cream is less affected by the temxDerature of the 
room in which the churning is being done. 

Watch temperature during churning. — I 
have known butter-makers who would pay no 
attention to the temperature of the cream in 
the churn after the churn was started. This 
way answers in cold weather, but in hot 
weather the temperature of the cream should 
l)e watched and if it gets too high put some ice, 
finely broken, into the churn. It is best to con- 
trol the temperature without the use of ice or 
water in the cream, but it is better to use them 
and keep control of the temperature than it is 
to lose control of the temperature. 

Color may be added to the salt.— Butter 



RIPENING AND CHURNING CREAM. 



199 



color, when used, should be added to the cream 
before the churn is started. When you do not 
know how much color to use be sure not to put 
in too much, and if the color is not high enough 
add more color to the salt before it is put into 
the butter. I have done this many times. A¥hen 
color is put into the salt it should be thorough- 
ly mixed with the salt before it is iDut into the 
butter. 

Test of buttermilk.— In April and May, 1893, 
we kept the record of three creameries, churn- 
ing for ten daj^s each, testing the buttermilk 
each day. In one creamery the average was 
.13 of 1 per cent for the ten days; the other 
two averaged less than .1 of 1 per cent of fat 
for the ten days. In one creamery there was 
not a test in the ten days in which there was .1 of 
1 per cent of fat in the buttermilk. The follow- 
ing figures give the results of some of the work 
done at the Pennsylvania dairy school in Jan- 
uary, 1893: 

•^ ' CHURNING. 



DATE. 


Per cent of 
cream 
in fat. 


Temperature 
at start. 


Temperature 
at which but- 
ter gathered. 


Per cent of 
fat in butter- 
milk. 


Poundfi but- 
termilk to 

contain 1 lb. 
butter-fat. 


Jan. 9 

Jan. 10 


33 ! 40 
23 1 43 
25.2 44 


52 
52 
55 
58 
60 
57 


.001 
05 


100,000 
20,000 
3,333i 
1,429 
1,000 
1,000 


Jan. 11 


.03 
.07 
.10 
10 


Jan. 12 

Jan. 18 


29.4 

20.5 

23.7 
* 


50 
50 
57 


Jan. 19 













200 



AMERICAN DAIRYING. 



The per cent of fat in cream can be readil}^ 
got at when you know the per cent of fat in 
the day's milk. If the milk has 4 per cent fat, 
and the separator takes one-sixth of the whole 
as cream the cream will contain 24 per cent of 
fat. If one-eighth of the whole milk is taken 
then the cream will have eight times as large 
a per cent of fat as the milk has, or 82 per 
cent. 

How to remove curd from butter. — Cream 
should always be strained through a perforated 

tin or a wire strainer 
into the churn. This 
breaks up any thick 
cream and helps to 
get it into good con- 
dition for the churn. 
When cream is being 
churned that has a 
large amount of milk 
in it the strainer is a help, especially if the 
milk is soured or curded, as it will break up the 
curd into small particles that can be removed 
by careful washing. In such cases when the 
butter has gathered in granules large enough 
to prevent a waste or loss through the strainer, 
stop the churn and draw off a part of the but- 
termilk and then put in water and agitate it 
gently, and draw off most of the water, leav- 
ing enough to float the butter, as the particles 




PERFORATED TIN CREAM STRAINER. 



RIPENING AND CHURNING CREAM. 201 

of curd are heavier than the butter or water 
and will sink to the bottom of the churn when 
hberated from the butter and can be drawn 
out with the w^ash water. But if the 
butter is allowed to settle down onto 
these particles of curd they adhere to 
the butter and it is impossible to get 
them out by washing. The cream 
should not be allowed to become suf- 
ficiently sour to cause this condition, 
but we sometimes get caught by a sud- 
9IIIIIIIIIII tf ^^^ change in the weather or some 
I other cause and then should know 

1 how to make the best of the situation. 
Many churn too quick.— Do not let 

^^^^ desire to do quick churning lead 
' o you astray. Time is a minor point. 

2 Cream with a high per cent of fat and 
o a temperature of 62 to 64 deg. may 
^ be churned in a few minutes, in some 

cases as short a time as ten minutes, 
but you will secure better butter 
when you reduce this temperature 
10 deg. and churn one hour. You 
will also secure more exhaustive 
churning; there will be less fat in the 
buttermilk. 
Have tested thermometer. — Every 
butter-maker should have a tested thermometer 
as a standard. Do not use it for any purpose 



Ibo 



CJ 



202 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

except to test new ones by. There is a great 
variation in some makes. 

Have a standard of color. — I also recom- 
mend that all butter-makers preserve a stand- 
ard of color. This may be a sample of butter 
in a glass jar. This should be kept from the 
light as some butter color fades in the light. 
Some butter-makers v^ill think this precaution 
unnecessary, but I know that it is necessary in 
many cases as I frequently find a butter-maker 
lost on this point ; he is too high or too low 
and he does not know it. 

Pasteurized cream. — I had expected to do 
some work in the line of butter-making from 
Pasteurized cream in time to report in this 
chapter, but I have not been able to find the 
time to do it. This is a live question and we 
should all be looking for information on it. I 
believe 1895 will bring us much reliable infor- 
mation on this subject. Here is a good field 
for our dairy schools to develop. I do not ex- 
pect that Pasteurizing cream from milk that is 
practically perfect will improve the flavor, but 
milk or cream that has a bad flavor coming 
from food of any kind like gaiiicks or turnips, 
or that has absorbed bad odors, I believe will 
be improved by Pasteurizing. It is my belief 
that Pasteurized cream ripened with the right 
ferment will make butter with better keeping 



RIPENING AND CHURNING CREAM. 203 

qualities than the same cream would make 
when not Pasteurized. 

European work. — I know there has been 
some work done in this line in this country and 
much more in Europe. Denmark is probably 
leading in this field and we shall profit by fol- 
lowing her work closely, not only in this line 
but in all other dairy and creamery work. 



CHAPTER VI 



SALTING, WORKING, PACKING AND 
MARKETING. 

Test the salt. — Care should be used in select- 
ing the salt. A good way to test it is to dis- 
solve some in hot water, when if there is any- 
thing bad about the flavor it will be easily de- 
tected. At the same time notice whether or 
not there is any sediment in the bottom of the 
glass in which the salt has been dissolved. 
Also notice the color of the brine — whether 
clear or milky. 

Salt absorbs odors. — I know from bitter ex- 
perience that salt will absorb bad odors. I 
once left a small shipment of salt in the rail- 
road freight house a few days where there was 
some barbed wire that was painted with some 
preparation that contained coal tar. The salt 
absorbed this odor and was spoiled for use in 
butter. My firm built a salt-room at one of 
our creameries, and adjoining it an open shed 
for hitching horses. The salt absorbed from 
the droppings in the horse shed and was spoiled, 
which would not have been a serious loss if 

(204) 



SALTING, WORKING AND PACKING. 205 

we had discovered the trouble in time, but we 
did not until complaint came from New York 
that our butter was not fine and the trouble in- 
creased. We looked after the milk and cream 
and vats, churn and butter-worker, in fact 
everywhere we could think for the trouble. 
At last when about to give up the hunt we 
discovered it in the salt. We had taken, as we 
thought, the best of care of our salt and did 
not suspect any trouble from that source. We 
could not detect it in the butter when first 
made, but by the time it had reached New 
York it had developed sufficiently to cause 
serious trouble. We at first thought the butter 
had been exposed to something in transit, but 
at last found it in the salt, which was so badly 
impregnated that it was easily perceptible. 
Have a clean, dry room free from any impure 
surroundings for salt. 

Butter injured by cheese. — The past sum- 
mer my firm bought some butter for a New 
York house which was rejected on arrival in 
New York, and on investigation it was found 
the butter was shipped from Chicago in the 
car with some Limburger cheese. The railway 
company made the loss good without any delay. 
I mention this to show the necessity for care. 
There was a loss of $6,000,000 on the butter 
that passed through the Chicago market in 
1892 that was traceable to lack of care, in- 



206 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

telligent work, skill, or something that could 
and should have been remedied. 

How much salt.— Use the quantity of salt in 
butter that suits your trade. Most of the 
United States markets wish three-fourths to 
one ounce per pound of butter. 

Sift the salt. — Use a sieve to put the salt onto 
the butter. This will break all lumps and the 
butter will require less working to get it in 
proper condition. Keep the butter in the gran- 
ular form until the salt is added, as the salt can 
be in this way thoroughly incorporated into 
the butter with less working than when the 
butter is allowed to pack before the salt is 
added. 

Churn salting. — Salting in the churn is prac- 
ticed by some of our best butter-makers. I 
think there is no better place to incorporate 
the salt with the granular butter than in the 
box or barrel churn when the butter is at the 
proper temperature so the granules do not pack. 
A slow motion of the churn mixes the salt with 
the granular butter very evenly and quickly. 
When doing this work it is best to revolve the 
churn by hand, as it is not practical to impart 
by power as slow a motion as is necessary. 
There are now on the market churns in which 
1 he butter is salted and worked before being 
taken out. The Disbrow and Owens churns are 
of this style. The Disbrow is in use by some of 



SALTING, WORKING AND PACKING. 207 

the most progressive creamery men in the 
Elgin district. 

Estimating for salt.— When salting in the 
churn it is best to estimate the amount of but- 




ter from the milk the cream was taken from. 
It is more reliable to figure from the milk than 
from the cream in the vat 



208 AMEKICAN DAIRYING. 

One or two workings. — The majority of 
butter-makers now work their butter but once. 
One working has some advantages. The work- 
ing is all done before the butter sets or be- 
comes hardened from being exposed to a low 
temperature and can be worked more without 
injury to the grain than when allowed to 
harden before given the second working. I 
am now supposing it has been churned at a 
proper temperature. If it has been churned at 
64 deg. Fahr. and is to be worked in a room 
with the temperature at 70 to 75 deg. I think it 
best to give it a second working after it has 
had time to cool and has come into condition 
to be worked. It requires more care and good 
judgment to finish butter at one working than 
it does when it is given two workings. When 
worked twice the appearance of the butter at 
second working is a sure guide as to when it is 
worked enough, as the time to stop is when the 
streaks caused by the salt are all removed. 
This rule cannot be applied when working 
once, as the salt is not all dissolved. I was one 
of the first in the Northern Illinois dairy dis- 
trict to put in practice one working, and I shall 
never forget how doubtful I was at first of its 
practicability. I took a sample of every day's 
make to my table for three weeks before I con- 
vinced myself that it was' a safe way to do. 
This was fifteen years ago. I practiced it for 



SALTING, WORKING AND PACKING. 209 

three years when working the butter myself, 
but never reached the point that I dared depend 
on the appearance of the butter to tell when it 
was worked enough. I always timed myself 
or counted the revolutions of the worker table. 
I have met butter-makers and have had some 
in my employ who claimed they could tell by 
the appearance of the butter at the first work- 
ing when it was worked enough, but I am still 
an unbeliever on that point. I admit that the 
work can be carried so far beyond the danger 
line that we are sure we will not have mottled 
or streaked butter, but I do not believe it is 
practicable to tell just wdien the danger point 
is passed. I have frequently caught a tvise 
butter-maker — one that knew when he had 
worked the butter enough — with butter that 
showed mottled on the trier. I say be on the 
safe side and work hy time or count the revolu- 
tions of the table. Twenty-five revolutions of 
most workers will carry over the danger line, 
but every butter-maker must make his own 
rule by timing the working and examining the 
butter the following day. Twice-worked but- 
ter has the best appearance. If I wished to do 
very fine work I should work it twice, and I 
recommend new beginners to practice twice 
working if they have a room at the proper tem- 
perature to hold the butter in while the salt is 
dissolving. This temperature should be 55 deg. 

14 



210 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

or below. Either too warm or too cold makes 
it bad for the butter. Butter may have the 
second working the day it is churned; all the 
time necessary is for the salt to dissolve; four 
hours is sufficient with most makes of salt. 
Some very coarse-grained salt will require more 
time to dissolve. 

Butter tubs. — Butter tubs should be first 
placed over a steam jet for two minutes and 
then soaked for twenty-four hours by being 
filled with water. Before using rinse out and 
rub the inside all over with salt, using no more 
than will adhere to the damp tub. This helps 
preserve the butter, prevents its adhering to 
the tub and causes it to show a tidy appearance 
when stripped. The various sized ash tubs are 
more generally used than any other package. 
Some markets prefer the spruce tub, and some 
use the tin-lined packages. The practice of 
lining butter tubs with paraffine paper is in- 
creasing. Some claim that it is a good lolan to 
coat the inside of the butter tubs with paraffine. 
A safe rule is to use a package that pleases the 
parties who buy your butter. Do not run away 
with the idea that you know best and under- 
take to dictate to them, as you will probably 
create friction and may lose a good customer 
by such a course. 

Care of packages.— Be sure that all packages 
are clean and sweet before you put butter in 



SALTING, WORKING AND PACKING. 211 

them. If you put butter in a package that is 
not sweet the butter will be injured before it is 
all consumed, you will be blamed for it, and 
you are not in a position to defend yourself. 

Care in packing.— In packing butter be sure 
and get it solid in the package. Do not put in 
too much at one time. If not solidly packed 
it will not keep as well and will not appear 
well when stripped (as it is in many markets) 
before being retailed. Finish the top of the 
package to suit the purchaser if he has any 
choice. Some want it cut with a string or 
wire even with the top of the tub. Others 
want a straight-edge used with notches in it 
to cut down from one-eighth to one-quarter of 
an inch and a paste of salt put over the cloth 
circle. This salt paste will set and exclude 
the air, and is a good way to finish butter in 
tubs that are to be held for future use. A very 
fine salt is best to make this paste of. Make it 
thick enough so that it will just run, and then 
by striking the sides of the tub with the hand* 
it will spread evenly over the whole surface of 
the tub and give it a very smooth and neat 
appearance. 

Neat packages.— Use care in keeping the 
packages clean and neat. An untidy package 
creates a suspicion of the contents and is not 
complimentary to the butter-maker, neither is 
it to his employer. 



212 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

Marketing. — In marketing j^ou must work 
3^our own way out. There are so man}^ differ- 
ent conditions and different demands that it is 
impossible to make rules that will fit everyone. 
For near-by markets prints wrapped in paraf- 
fin e paper afford a very satisfactory way to 
market butter. For shipping a long distance 
some kind of a tub is best. There is compara- 
tively little iDrint butter handled in the Central 
and Western States yet, but I believe this 
method of handling butter will increase. What- 
ever way you handle your butter do it well and 
make yourself a reputation. This is stock in 
trade to you. Every make of butter has an in- 
dividuality and when a customer becomes ac- 
quainted with a certain brand he prefers it to 
some other brand or make that is equally good 
and would score just as high by an expert. 
This point the maker should take advantage of 
and profit by. If at any time you have butter 
that is not up to your standard do not try to 
slip it through and "guess" it will pass. This 
does not pay in the end, as it may m many cases 
go to a particular customer and cause you 
trouble. , Always mark such packages so you 
can describe them to the purchaser or consignee 
if you allow them to go with the rest of the 
butter. It is a much better way to not let 
them go with the fine goods, Imt put them 

somewhere else on their merits. In this w^ay 



SALTING, WORKING AND PACKING. 213 

you will hold your goods up to standard and 
the reputation of your butter will grow and 
enable you to secure a larger price for your 
goods. Do not try to get something for noth- 
ing. It does not pay. 



CHAPTER VII. 



CARE OF SKIM-MILK AT CREAMERY. 

Skim-milk is of sufficient value to warrant 
its being well cared for at the creamery; but I 
am sorry to ])e compelled to say that in many 
creameries it is not properly cared for, though 
I believe the majority do as well as they know 
how. 

Clean vats. — The skim-milk should be kept 
in vats that can be and are thoroughly cleansed 
every day. If the vat is allowed to become 
sour or there is some sour milk left over daily 
and the sweet milk is run into it the sour milk 
or sour vat acts as a ferment and the result 
is that the milk becomes too sour before the 
farmer gets it home and fed to the pigs. Some 
of the skim -milk needs to be kept until the fol- 
lowing morning where it has to be drawn so 
far to the creamery that it will not be returned 
in time for the morning feed. 

Sweet and sour. — The Vermont Experiment 
Station has done some work showing the com- 
parative feeding value of sour and sweet skim- 
milk for pigs in which the sour milk gave the 
best results. I have been trying for two years 

(214) 



CARE OF SKIM-MILK AT CREAMERY. 215 

to get the Illinois Experiment Station to do 
some work to show the comparative value of 
sweet and excessively sour milk fed to pigs, 
such as is returned from some creameries. An 
underground vat should never be used for skim- 
milk as it is not possible to properly clean it 
and keep it in good condition. 

For calves. — For young calves it is necessary 
to have the milk sweet, and the creamery 
should provide some convenient way for the 
patrons to get it sweet and clean from the 
separator. 

Scalding. — By scalding the skim-milk as soon 
as . it leaves the separator it will keep much 
longer before souring. There was a device de- 
scribed in the dairy and creamery papers two 
or three years ago, I think by some man in 
Iowa, that is a successful contrivance and very 
inexpensive. It consists of a pail or tub to set 
into the skim-milk vat for the milk to run into 
from the separators and a wooden cover that 
drops inside not quite filling the tub or pail. 
This cover has a hole in it through which the 
exhaust steam-pipe from the engine is carried, 
reaching one or two inches through the wooden 
cover into the milk. The float cover prevents 
the slop from the boiling milk and allows the 
milk to overflow around the outside of it. The 
exhaust pipe must not extend too far into the 
milk as it will create a back pressure on the 



216 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

engine. We have used this device in the sum- 
mer months and know that it does efficient 
work, and it costs nothing but to conduct the 
steam to the vat. It comes nearer to getting 
something for nothing than we often reach. I 
am sorry that I do not know the name of the 
inventor, as I should be pleased to give him 
credit for it as a good thing. The creamery 
proprietor or manager should do all he can to 
insure the patrons getting their skim-milk in the 
best possible condition without too much ex- 
pense. 

Mutual interests should be regarded.— This 
is policy; as every little thing helps to make 
up the business. The patrons feel much better 
when the proprietor takes an interest in them 
and their work. In fact the interests are large- 
ly mutual. I know of some creameries where 
the skim-milk is run into underground vats 
and the proprietors will not comply with the 
wishes of their patrons and provide better 
means of keeping the skim-milk in good condi- 
tion. Such creamery men are not deserving of 
patronage and they usually do not retain it a 
great length of time. If they could have the 
patron's experience in feeding the rotten milk 
for a time they would begin to think in the 
right direction. I am happy to be able to say 
there are not many of this breed of creamery 
men left and the earlier they are wiped out or 
reformed the better. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



CAEE OF BUILDINOS AND UTENSILS. 

The work-rooms, utensils, and the drainage 
are vital points in the creamery work. In some 
cases they are sadly neglected. 

A weak point. — I sometimes think that here 
is the weakest part of our creamery work. Many 
of our creamery employes have not had the 
proper training in this line. We have many 
men that are neat and orderly about their 
work and an honor to their business. It does 
me good to meet such. I feel that I want to 
shake with them. 

Tinware.— All tinware in the creamery should 
be cared for the same as in the dairy so far as 
possible. The vats, churns, and butter-worker 
of course cannot be put out in the sun to be 
aired and sweetened. Tinware should be wiped 
dry after scalding unless it becomes hot enough 
by scalding to dry itself. 

The churn.— The churn is the most neglected 
implement in our creameries. They are a hard 
thing to keep clean and sweet, especially the 
box-churns, as they are so hard to get into, but 

(21T) 



218 



AMERICAN DAIRYING. 



they can be kept perfectly clean and sweet by 
the use of hot water and scrub brush and steam 
for scaldinar. A person can make use of his 




hands and nose in this work. A dirty churn 
can be detected by a blind man, even if he has 
lost the sense of smell, as the sense of feeling 
will tell whether it is clean or not. 



CARE OF BUILDINGS AND UTENSILS. 



219 



How to scald a churn. — To scald a churn 
use a hose to conduct the steam into the churn, 
having the churn nearly closed, giving an op- 
portunity for the steam to escape sufficiently 
so that it will not burst the churn. We once 



ruined by pressure of 
Too long exposure to 
the churn so as to open 
cially if the churn is 
this risk need not be 
churn can be sweetened 



had a churn 

confined steam. 

steam shrinks 

the joints, espe- 

oak or ash, but 

taken as the 

without being 

exposed long 

enough to injure it. Care is 

needed here as in every other 

place. 

Use care with a new churn. 
Often a new churn is injured 
by not loosening the nuts on 
the stay rods as the churn 
swells from the water used 
in cleaning it. This should 
be closely watched for a few 
weeks. I have seen hard- 
wood churns ruined in this 
way. They are usually made of thinner lum- 
ber than is used in soft-wood churns, and it will 
spring out of shape more easily. Neglect to 
keep the churn clean is the cause of much poor 
butter. The butter may not show any serious 



BARBER'S PIPE NOISELESS 
WATER HEATER. 



220 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

defect when fresh, but the germ is planted and 
will develop rapidly. 

A case in point. — A Boston butter dealer 
once told me of traveling from Boston to Iowa, 
1,200 miles, to find out what was the trouble 
with the butter from a creamery in which he 
was interested and found it in the churn, which 
had not been properly cleaned and cared for. 

The butter-worker. — The table butter-work- 
er is easily got at to clean. It should be thor- 
oughly washed with hot water and a brush and 
then scalded with boiling water. The churn 
and butter-worker should be scalded and then 
cooled with cold water before using. All 
wooden utensils should have the same treat- 
ment. Also the woodwork of the vats. 

The creamery drain should have a trap to 
prevent any foul air returning to the inte- 
rior. Many creameries are faulty in this way, 
the managers apparently not seeming to realize 
the necessity of pure air and thorough cleanli- 
ness. Cream and milk will absorb odors that 
the nose cannot detect. I have several times 
traced trouble with butter to causes that my 
nose could not detect without close contact. 

Constant care necessary. — Constant care is 
necessary to success and in no business does 
this show more plainly than in the creamery. 
The drainage should be carried from the build- 
ing in underground sewer pipes. If there is 



CARE OF BUILDINGS AND UTENSILS. 



221 




HALF-MOON SCRUB BRUSH. 




TAMPICO CAN BRUSH. 





COMMON FLOOR SCKUB BRUSH. 



222 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

any necessary slop in delivering the skim -milk 
or other by-product from the creamery keep it 
sweet by the use of boiling water and disin- 
fectants. There should not and need not be any 
bad smell about the creamery outside or inside. 
All pumps should be so constructed as to be 
taken apart to be cleaned. Insist on this point. 

Leaky vats. — Leaky vats are often the cause 
of trouble as a very small quantity of milk 
when mixed with the w^ater surrounding the 
vat or allowed to remain in the water space 
surrounding the tin vat, will soon make a 
stench that will go all through the creamery 
and breed any amount of trouble. The tin vat 
should be removed from the w^ood part of the 
vat frequently and the w^ood part thoroughly 
cleaned. The gutter that conducts the waste 
water and washings to the sewer is also a source 
of trouble if not closely looked after. It should 
be treated to boiling water after the floor is 
cleaned. Too much care cannot be taken in 
this part of the work. If any offensive smell 
meets you on entering the creamery it should 
be hunted out and removed as soon as possible. 

The boiler. — The boiler should be blown off 
and cleaned out as often as necessary to keep 
it clean. Have a certain day or days of the 
month for this work and do not postpone it, 
as delays are dangerous. Draw the fire and let 
the mason work cool partially before blowing 



CARE OF BUILDINGS AND UTENSILS. 



223 



off; when it can be had use a hose with a pres- 
sure of water to wash the boiler out. With 
some water a boiler can be kept clean without 
using any kind of boiler compound, but with 




IRON MOP HEAD. 



other water something of this kind is needed. 
When anything of this kind is required l)e 
careful that you secure something that will not 
injure the boiler. Do not use anything that 




WOOD MOP HEAD. 



you know nothing about. If burning soft coal 
the flues should be cleaned daily, the best time 
being in the morning before starting the tire; 
and if it is a slow-steaming boiler or there is a 
poor draft it may be necessary ta clean in the 



224 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

middle of the da}^ If you ever get caught 
with low water in a boiler draw the fire and 
allow the steam to go down before filling it. 

Results of neglect. — I recentl}^ saw a case 
where the flues of a boiler began to leak and 
had to be repaired, and an investigation of the 
case developed the fact that the fire had been 
banked to hold over night and the water had 
become so low from the lost steam in some way 
that the flues were exposed without water cov- 
ering them and a leak was the result. I also 
saw a locomotive style of boiler leaking from a 
crack in the crown sheet caused from carelessly 
letting the water get too low. 

Look to safety-valve daily. — Try the safety- 
valve every morning to see that it is not stuck 
fast, as they will occasionally stick. Keep the 
valves all packed so they will not leak. Keep 
all steam and water joints tight. Leaky valves 
and joints are a poor advertisement for the 
creamery manager. 

The engine. — The engine needs care as well 
as the boiler, though there is not so much 
danger resulting from carelessness. Keep all 
bearings oiled and the boxes tight enough to 
prevent pounding. If you have not had expe- 
rience that has fitted you to do this work get 
some one to teach you. The trouble with some 
men is that they do not appear to realize the 
difference between an engine key and a forty- 



CARE OF BUILDINGS AND UTENSILS. 225 

penny spike. Either one gets a full blow of 
the hammer. We have had men in our em- 
ploy that could not keep their engine in order, 
while their successors would have it in the best 
of order in a very few days. This comes large- 
ly from a lack of perseverance about details. 

Look to the belts. — Keep the belts in order; 
do not wait for them to break before repairing 
them. They should be examined at the end of 
the day's w^ork and if out of order repair them 
before you call the day's work done, so as to be 
sure of making the next day's run. It is a ter- 
rible annoyance to have a belt break when 
there a.re several patrons waiting. This, if re- 
peated many times, destroys the confidence of 
the patrons in the manager. Ten men with 
their teams waiting one hour means a day's 
work, or $2.50 to $3, lost. 

15 



CHAPTER IX. 



SUGGESTIONS TO THOSE ABOUT TO 
BUILD A CREAMERY. 

Location. — When about to build a creamery 
one of the first points to settle is the location. 
Here we should be influenced by the chance 
for good drainage and the general lay of the 
ground. Some prefer to have a creamery built 
with different levels, so that the milk and 
cream have a down grade from the weigh-can 
through to the churn. When such a location 
can be secured it is nice in many ways, but it 
makes a hard place to work, as there is so 
much going up and down. 

Which is preferable.— I prefer a creamery 
built all — except the receiving-room — on the 
same level and pumps used to elevate the milk 
and cream. The receiving-room should be 
enough higher than the main floor so that the 
milk will run from the weigh-can into the re- 
ceiving vat and then be pumped into the tem- 
pering vat. The cream also to be pumped high 
enough to run over a cooler placed over the 
cream vat so that the cream drops from the 
cooler into the cream vat. 

(226) 



CREAMERY BUILDING. . 227 

Can elevate cream vat. — The cream vat 
may have its legs extended so that it is high 
enough to flow into the churn. All pumps in 
a creamery that are used to pump whole milk 
and cream should be so made that they can be 
taken apart to be cleaned, and it is best that 
the skim-milk pump be made in the same wa}^ 
This removes the objection to a pump in a 
creamery, or at least it removes the vital objec- 
tion of un cleanliness, as a pump made so as to 
be taken to pieces can be kept as clean as any 
other utensil in the creamery. 

Creamery floor. — The floor should be put on 
the ground, and if made of wood should be 
laid in cinders, as it will then not decay as fast 
as if laid on the dirt. I have had twelve 
years' experience with both Avood and cement 
floors, and my opinion of the merits of the two 
is but little changed from what it w^as eight or 
ten years ago. I think a little more favorably 
of the cement floor than I formerly did, and 
think I should now use it if I could be sure of 
securing a man to put it in that I knew under- 
stood the business; otherwise I would use two- 
inch flooring, filling up between the joists with 
cinders so the flooring would rest on the cin- 
ders. A cement floor will wear out in time and 
is difficult to repair. All creamery floors should 
pitch to the gutter. 

A trap necessary. — Do not fail to put a trap 



228 



AMERICAN DAIRYING. 



in the sewer. This may be of sewer pipe or of 
wood. A wooden trap put inside the building 




is the most convenient to clean and keep in 
good order. It is simply a box which the 
gutter flows through, the outlet being at least 



CREAMERY BUILDING. 



229 



one inch lower than the inlet, with a partition 
in it which reaches within two inches of the 
bottom of the box and below the outlet. This 



/ rZ\-.ri.^(fBCR 




•f 



box is built or placed under the floor in such a 
position that the cover forms a part of the 
floor and can be removed readily to clean the 
dirt out of the trap. 



230 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

Importance of drainage. — The drainage 
should be conducted at least forty rods awaj^ 
from the building and a greater distance is 
better. Creamery drainage is very offensive in 
hot weather. 

Criticisms of plan, — The accompanying plan 
shows a very well arranged creamery. The 
driveway and receiving platform should be two 
feet higher, which would make it much easier 
emptying the cans into the weigh-can. The 
engine is in the room with the separators. This 
is as it should be. The engine should not be in 
the room with the boiler. There is too much 
dust from the coal and a.shes and it is more 
convenient to get at in the room with the sep- 
arators. The cream vats are in a room separate 
from the separator-room and churn-room. The 
churn and butter- worker are in one room. 
This is a good arrangement. This room should 
be so arranged that the temperature can be 
controlled during the time of churning and 
working the butter. The temperature of the 
cream must be held down during the churning 
process to secure the best results in quality and 
quantity of butter. A high temperature will not 
secure the desired object. The temperature may 
be controlled from the refrigerator or by having 
an ice-box in the room built so as to obtain a 
circulation of air about the ice. It is desirable 
to control the temperature of the cream-room 



CREAMERY BUILDING. 281 

also, and it may be clone in the same way that 
the churn-room is controlled. I do not like 
the plan of having the separators, cream vats, 
churn, and butter-worker all in one room. It 
is impractical to control the temperature of 
such a room in hot weather so as to secure the 
best results. An ice-cooler in a cream or churn- 
room helps to secure a pure atmosphere, as the 
air deposits impurities when coming in contact 
with ice which are carried off with the water. 
This can be demonstrated by tasting water from 
melting ice that has impure air circulating 
about it. 

Tempering vat. — Have an overflow in the 
tempering vat and conduct the overflow back 
to the vat from which the milk is pumped. Or 
when the tempering vat is lower than the re- 
ceiving vat the milk can be allowed to flow 
into the tempering vat and be controlled by a 
valve to which a float is attached. It is best to 
keep a uniform depth of milk in the tempering 
vat. This is not a necessity when a float is 
used in connection with the separator faucet, 
as is the case with most separators. The ob- 
ject is to secure a uniform feed of milk to the 
separators. This must be accomplished in some 
way. 

Act with caution.— The cost of a creamery 
is a matter for careful consideration. Every 
dairy implement dealer will furnish plans and 



232 



AMERICAN DAIRYING. 



most of them estimates of the cost both of 
building and equipments. Go slow and be care- 
ful in this part of the work. Do not make con- 




tracts with parties until you have informed 
yourself of their responsibility (as there are a 
plenty of reliable firms) and have learned what 
such a plant as you wish to build should cost. 



CREAMERY BUILDING. 



233 



If there is doubt about the amount of business 
that will be done keep on the safe side and do 
not build too large. If the business outgrows 




the plant you can afford to enlarge it. Keep 
this in view when building and arrange so it 



234 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

can be enlarged if needed and still be in con- 
venient shape. 

Necessary investment.— The amount to be 
invested in a creamery plant depends on the 
amount of business that is expected to be done. 
$2,500 to $3,500 is sufficient to build and equip 
a creamery to handle 10,000 to 15,000 lbs. of 
milk per day. The cost will vary with the cost 
of material in different localities. 

Boiler and engine. — When purchasing boiler 
and engine have the boiler of 50 per cent 
greater capacity than the engine. There are 
two reasons for this. One is the amount of 
steam required for purposes about the creamery 
and the other is that the larger boiler does not 
need as much time spent in firing. This is 
quite an item in a creamery as a person cannot 
be employed for this work alone. 

Look out for a good draft. — Have as direct 
a draft as possible to the smoke-stack. Every 
turn checks the draft. A good draft is economi- 
cal of fuel, also of time and patience. A per- 
son that can have patience with a poor-draft 
boiler will probably have sufficient to get along 
with the patrons. As annoying work as I 
ever did was firing a boiler with a poor 
draft. The fact that this is an unnecessary 
evil makes it more aggravating. Too low 
a smoke-stack or too many turns is usually 
the cause. In closing this chapter I would ad- 



CREAMERY BUILDING. 235 

vise anyone about to build a creamery to get 
what information they can at home, then visit 
some modern-built creameries and get the latest 
ideas. The time and money necessary for this 
will be well spent and probably saved several 
times over before the creamery is completed. 
Do not go it blind in building a creamery. Do 




IMPROVED POWER ROTARY FORCE PTTMP. 

not rely too much on some interested party. See 
your way clear before starting out. There is 
some money in the business when managed 
with skill, and if not money can be lost and is 
lost very fast. 

Skim stations. — I have had some experience 
with these, having had an interest in two, one 
of which has been in operation three years and 
the other one two years. This was a live ques- 



236 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

tiou ill the Pennsylvania State College dairy 
school in 1893, the class becoming so much in- 
terested in it that leaders were selected and an 
evening spent in discussing the question jpro 
and con. I am now in the position in which I 
do not like to see another person; i. e., on the 
fence. I am satisfied that there are localities 
and conditions where it is advisable to operate 
skim stations in connection with a central 
creamery. But I do not believe it is desirable 
under all conditions. It is necessary where a 
skim station is built new to be operated sum- 
mer and winter to invest about two-thirds as 
much as would be necessary to make it a com- 
plete plant. Power must be had, also water 
and a separator. This, with vats, shafting, 
pum]ps, etc., added to the cost of the building 
makes more of an investment than is at first 
thought to be necessary. A good supply of 
cold water is necessary to cool the cream, in 
lieu of which ice must be used, as the cream 
must be thoroughly cooled as fast as skimmed 
and kept cool until delivered to the central 
creamery. A cooler like the Star or the Danish 
Weston are very efiicient for this work. If 
this cream is not thoroughly cooled from the 
separator or is allowed to become warm on the 
road it will churn and also become too sour 
and there will be trouble with the butter. I 
know these difficulties can be overcome, as I 



CREAMEKY BUILDING. 237 

see them overcome day after day with the tem- 
perature up in the nineties. Sometimes room 
can be rented for this purpose at a price to 
make it more economical than to build. Power 
may also be rented to advantage at times. 

I do not feel like advising for or against the 
skim station. I believe every one must study 
and figure his own way out in such matters. 
My firm is operating one skim station at my 
farm, where I had a farm creamery building in 
which I made butter when I lived there. I 
also had a well and a steam boiler, so the main 
investment necessary was in the separator. In 
this line there are scarcely two cases alike, so 
it is impractical to give intelligent advice. Ex- 
perience is valuable, but we often secure it at 
too great a cost. 



CHAPTER X. 



CIATHERED-CREAM WORK. 

My experience in the gathered-creaiii busi- 
ness began in the early clays of the work when 
all the cream was bought by the gauge, or 113 
cubic inches, which was supposed to make a 
pound of l)utter, no matter whether it was 
winter or summer, nor whether it was raised in 
ice water or in water at 60 deg. Fah. 

Surplus and shortage. — We always had a 
surplus in the summer and a shortage in win- 
ter that more than balanced the surplus of the 
summer. The shortage always came when the 
buttei* was at the highest price of the year and 
one pound shortage would be equal to two 
pounds surplus in money value. I learned sev- 
eral things in this work and it cost me some- 
thing to learn. I learned some things that I 
did not care to learn as it caused me to have 
less faith in the honesty of some persons, and I 
also learned that a patron could secure pay for 
more than he sold without being dishonest. In 
fact if he handled his milk in a way to secure 
all of the cream possible he would secure a 
quality that when sold on the gauge plan would 
}/eat the creamer}^ eight months out of twelve. 

(238) 



GATHERED-CREAM WORK. 



239 



The cream gauge. — The gauge of 113 cubic 
inches was made to fit average work, but aver- 
age work does not secure all of the cream; it 
allows the xorofit to go to the calves and pigs 
in the skim-milk. 

Comparative profit of whole milk and 
gathered-cream work. — In 1882 I made some 
comparisons of our gathered-cream and whole- 
milk work to learn what our patrons received 
for their milk by the two systems. In making 




CREAM VAT STRAIN 



this comparison I allowed 10 cents per 100 lbs. 
for delivering the milk to the creamery or 
cheese factory and 15 cents per 100 lbs. for the 
difference between the feeding value of skim- 
milk and whey, and deducted this 25 cents from 
the price received by the patron Avho delivered 
his milk at the creamery before comparing it 
with the price received by the patron who sold 
cream. At that time we kept a record of the 
cans skimmed for the patrons, and knowing 
what the cans held it could be got at as closely 
as necessary. Figured on this basis the result 



240 



AMERICAN DAIRYING. 



was as follows for the several months from 
May to November: 





Cream- 
ery divi- 
dend. 


Less 
twen- 
ty-five 
cents. 


To compare 
with gath- 
ered cream 
dividend. 


Gathered 
cream div- 
idend- 
cents. 


Differ- 
ence- 
cents. 


May 

June 

July 

August 

September. . . 

October 

November . . . 


$0.89 
.83 
.81 
1.02 
1.25 
1.43 
1.49 


25 
25 
25 
25 
25 
25 
25 


$0.64 

.58 

.56 

.77 

1.00 

1.18 

1.24 


58 

49 

47 

49 

61i 

74i 

89 


6 
9 
9 

28 
38i 
33i 
35 



My firm formerly did gathered-cream work at 
all of om- creameries, but it gradually changed 
to the plan of de- 
livering of the milk 
to the creameries, 
so that we have not 
for several years 
done anything in 
the gathered-cream 
work. When in that 
work I tried as hard 
to make a success 
of it as I have of 
any part of my busi- 
ness. These com- 
parisons were made 
when we were mak- 
ing l)utter and 
cheese, setting our 
milk in pools to 




DRIVER'S MEASURING PAIL. 



GATHERED-CREAM WORK. 



241 



raise the cream and making the skim-milk into 
cheese. With the advent of the separator the 
comparison would be more in favor of the 
whole- milk work. 

Test plan in gathered-cream work. — After 
a few years' work with the gauge plan of pay- 
ing for cream we adopted tlie test plan, using 
the oil-test churn to decide the butter value of 
the cream. This proved to be quite reliable 

and accurate. The 
greatest trouble 
we encountered 
was to make the 
cream gatherers 
realize the neces- 
sity of care in se- 
curing the sample 
of cream to be 
tested. With care- 
ful work we found 
the test and churn to agree so closely as to sur- 
prise us. This plan of paying also did justice 
between the different patrons. 

Pioneer work. — I look upon gathering cream 
as pioneer work. There are many sections 
where it can be made a success and the whole- 
milk work could not. The gathered-cream 
work can cover so much more territory that it 
can secure a business where there cannot be 
milk enough secured to make a paying business. 

16 




242 



AMERICAN DAIRYINa. 



Gathering cans and tanks.— In my early 
experience I used the common eight-gallon 
milk can to transport the cream; later on we 




used the jacketed can, which had a space out- 
side the cream can for air. It also had a 
floating cover that rested on the cream to pre- 
vent churning by agitation of the cream. Later 
still the tank or vat came into use,, and this 



GATHERED-CREAM WORK. 



243 



was a great improvement over the can. There 
was less churning and the temperature was 
much less affected by the weather both in win- 
ter and in summer. 

Use of ice. — In extreme hot weather we used 
ice in the vat, putting it in at the creamery 

when the wagon 
started on its daily 
route. I do not like 
to use ice in contact 
witli cream or l^ut- 
ter, but it is better 
to use it than to al- 
low the cream to be- 
come too sour, as it 
is sure to in extreme 
hot weather without 
some precaution. It 
is desirable to get 
the cream to the 
creamery sweet and 
then ripen it to suit your ideas of what brings 
the best results. 

Churned the day gathered. — I have in some 
cases cooled and churned the cream the after- 
noon after it was brought in, knowing that it 
Avould be too sour the next morning to make a 
good quality of butter. 

Gathered-cream and whole-milk butter.— 
It is possi1:)le to make as fine butter from 




HANEY'S JACKETED CBBAM-CARKIEK. 



244 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

gathered cream as is made l)y the whole-milk 
creameries, but it is not done as a rule. W here 
it is done all the conditions are favorahle. If 
all the patrons would use a submerged can and 
ice-water to cool the milk, which should be 
skimmed at twenty-four hours and the cream 
delivered at the creamery sweet, there is no 
reason why first-class butter cannot be made, 
but if the patrons are allowed to use all sorts 
of vessels to set their milk in and set it in all 
sorts of places, where it will be exposed to im- 
pure air such as may be found iu a vegetable 
cellar or in the kitchen, or various places that 
might be mentioned, it cannot be expected to 
make fine butter. T have seen gathered cream 
that when heated to 110 deg. and exposed to 
the nose was a revelation to the possessor of 
the nose. It revealed where it had been be- 
yond question. Such cream cannot be made 
into fine butter. If I was about to start a 
gathered-cream business I should use and com- 
pel the use of some submerged cans, even if I 
had to furnish them and rent them to the 
patrons. 

Submerged can.— The sul)merged can is a 
protection from heat and cold as well as foul 
odors. This system can be used in any cheap 
room or house, or even out under the trees 
where it is convenient to the water. 

Pioneer work. — We had much to contend 



GATHERED-CREAM WORK. 



245 



with in the West in the pioneer w^ork with 
gathered cream, as many did not have water 
and were compelled to use pans and crocks to set 




their milk in, and to set the same in many 
places where they should not. The Eastern or 
New England creameries have not had one- 



246 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

fourth as much to overcome in this line as we 
have in the West. I know this, as I am a New 
Hampshire-born man, coming West when six- 
teen years old. I say to all gathered-cream 
men that are not using some dairy test that 
you should do so by all means. If you succeed 
in doing justice between yourself and your 
patrons as a whole, you cannot do justice be- 
tween the different patrons without the test; 



RUSSIAX BABOOCK TESTER. 



and here is the foundation of all creamery 
work. An injustice anywhere is sure to breed 
dissatisfaction and end in justice prevailing or 
in the business going to pieces. This is inevit- 
able. 

The Babcock test.— The Babcock test has 
come into the field since my firm dropped the 
gathered-cream work. We use the Babcock 
machine to test cream that we ship to Chicago, 
and T see no reason why it is not an improve- 



GATHERED-CREAM WORK. 



247 



ment over the old oil-test churn for use in 
gathered-cream work. 

Since writing the foregoing I have received 
from the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment 




Station, New Haven, Conn., "Bulletin No. 119," 
on "The Babcock Test as a Basis for Payment 
in Cream-Grathering Creameries." 



248 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

It first shows the defects of the old gauge 
system, which I have already written about. 
The apparatus for weighing and sampling the 
cream is illustrated, and consists of a pail 
eight inches in diameter and twenty-two inches 
deep, a spring balance, a sampling tube, collect- 
ing bottles for the driver to bring samples of 
each patron's cream at each trip, and the com- 
posite sample bottle, which may be a half-pint 
jar. Instructions for sampling and weighing 
are given. Bichromate of potash is recom- 
mended as a preservative of the composite 
samples. An 18 c. c. pipette is used to meas- 
ure the cream for testing. The test bottle used 
is graduated from to 30, having a large neck, 
it being made to test cream. The acid, the 
acid measure and the centrifugal machine are 
the same as used in testing milk, and the work 
of testing is practically the same as in testing 
milk. 

The bulletin contains six very interesting 
and instructive tables showing the variations 
in cream from different patrons, besides much 
valuable information for persons operating 
gathered-cream creameries, and they should 
secure a copy of it if possible. 



CHAPTER XI. 



A TALK WITH CREAMERY EMPLOYES. 

There is probably no line of employment 
where there is more to induce the workmen to 
slight their work than in creameries. There 
are no fixed hours of labor, but it is commence 
early and work until the work is done. It may 
be necessary to commence at 4 o'clock in the 
morning and work until 2 p, m. This is fre- 
quently the case where one man is doing the 
work and it is necessary to do the churning and 
butter-working before the milk arrives. Or the 
labor may commence at 6 o'clock and end at 
4 o'clock p. m. In either case there are no 
.regular hours of labor. Here is where many 
stumble. The situation is like when we were 
boys and were told that when we had done a 
certain amount of work we could go fishing or 
hunting, or to play at some favorite game. We 
all remember how hard we would work to get 
this amount of work done as soon as possible 
so as to have as long a time as possible to hunt, 
fish or play, as w^e preferred. The situation is 
very similar with many creamery employes, 

(249) 



250 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

and the result is there is too much hustle and 
hurry. The work many times is not properly 
done. There is a failure to get the water used 
in washing hot enough to remove the grease, 
or if it is at the proper temperature when 
commencing work it soon cools so that it does 
not do effectual work, and the desire to get 
through as soon as possible leads to the use of 
water not possessing the necessary heat. There 
is really no time gained here, as hot water does 
its work so much quicker that time is saved by 
renewing the water. As soon as water fails to 
remove dirt and grease stop and renew it and 
make time by it. I find more men stumbling 
here than anywhere else in the creamery work. 
When a person fails to keep the utensils in the 
creamery clean he is negligent about the pa- 
trons' cans, and the milk gets off flavor from 
this cause and is received in an off condition. 
There is a general loss of grip on the work all 
down the line and the result inevitably is a loss 
of flavor in the butter, a loss of profit and gen- 
eral demoralization. You may think this is 
overdrawn, but it is not. I have repeatedly 
seen this very situation. My firm is just now 
putting in a boiler to replace one that is six 
years old and that was ruined by the foreman 
failing to care for it as he was instructed to do 
and deceiving us in regard to the matter. He 
failed to clean the boiler and allowed the mud 



A TALK WITH CREAMERY EMPLOYES. 251 

and lime to collect in the bottom until it 
reached the lower row of flues and blistered 
the boilers over the fire. We got it patched at 
the time, but we might better have thrown it 
away, as we have expended on it altogether 
nearly enough to purchase a new boiler and 
now w^e are compelled to throw it away; and 
we are putting in place of it a boiler that is 
twice as old and is nearly as good as new. The 
first w^as ruined by carelessness and the other 
one was cared for properly and is still a good 
boiler. I write this to show the difference in 
men. 

Scarcely a year passes that we do not drop 
men from our employment simply because 
they have not grip enough to do as well as they 
know how. They ''play boy" with their work 
and the result is they have to make way for 
some one who will attend to business. I fre- 
quently hear men say they are earning all or 
more than they get. On the other side I re- 
cently heard a young man say he did not expect 
an advance in salary until he had proven by 
his work that he was worth to his employer 
more than he was receiving. He recently se- 
cured an advance of $25 per month at a time 
that many were accepting less salary and some 
losing their positions entirely. Every true man 
or woman respects a person that does honorable 
work well. I have seen ditchers that I felt like 



252 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

lifting my hat to, and so it is in all lines of 
work. A faithful, intelligent workman is sure 
to reap his reward. If one employer will not 
do him justice another one will; we all find our 
level in time; this is inevitable. And whether 
this level be high or low depends on ourselves 
to a great degree. 

Do all your work about the creamery in a 
tidy manner; put the dishcloths through the vat 
gates and do not leave them so that a person's 
finger inserted in them will show grease or 
filth. Fix those milk pumps so you can take 
them to pieces to be cleaned. They are unsafe 
if not so treated. Clean all utensils so you are 
not afraid to have your best suit come in con- 
tact with them and are not ashamed to show 
them to a tidy housekeeper. By the way, a 
tidy housekeeper could give many of us point- 
ers that would be of great value to us. One of 
the best men I ever had in my employ never 
left the creamery in the afternoon until he had 
inspected all the machinery, belting, etc., and 
knew it was in condition t(t make a day's run. 
This man was given employment as long as he 
could be induced to stay. A man that will do 
as well as he knows how every day in the year 
is a jewel, and he is sure to succeed. The uten- 
sils in a creamery are short-lived with good 
care, but with a careless man they are doubly 
so. Some men handle everything properly 



A TALK WITH CREAMERY EMPLOYES. 253 

and others drop or throw everything they 
handle. The careful man can save to his em- 
ployer half his salary over the careless man. 
The time is approaching when more will be re- 
quired of creamery employes in the way of 
knowledge of their work, good judgment and 
skill. We are progressing in this work rapidly 
and this progress is likely to continue so it will 
be necessary for men in this line of work to 
keep alive and up to date. 

If yoQ have regard for your future reputation, 
usefulness and financial success be careful and 
neat about your work. Do not let an hour's 
time per day now prevent your securing an ad- 
vance of $10 per month next year. Your em- 
ployer has a right to expect value received for 
the salary he pays you. As I have said before, 
make yourself a necessity. You should take 
and read at least one live creamery paper, and 
more than one will pay you well. Remember 
there are a plenty of men that know more than 
we do, and a plenty that do not know any more 
that can give us valuable ideas. Yes, there are 
many that know much less than we do that 
have some information that we have not and 
that we can use to our advantage. As a practi- 
cal illustration in this line I will give a little 
information that I picked up in the past few 
months. A certain creamery that I know well 
has had a market for its butter for several years 



254 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

in an Eastern city. In 1893 a part of the sum- 
mer make was put in the cold and held until 
winter. W hen it was taken out and put on the 
market it was found that it had not kept well. 
This was a surprise to the holder and to the 
creamery proprietor too, as the goods had prev- 
iously kept well in the cold and made the holder 
some money; but in 1893 it made quite a large 
loss and of course in 1894 the goods had to 
hunt a new customer and the proprietor of the 
creamery secured a new butter-maker. Here 
was a money loss to the purchaser of the but- 
ter, a loss of a position to the butter- maker and 
a loss of business to the creamery proprietor, 
all from failing to do as well as a person knew 
how. As time passes along more will be ex- 
pected of creamery employes in the way of in- 
telligence and good judgment. We have a 
great deal to learn in this line yet. Let us not 
run away with the idea that we are smarter 
than other people. We show a weakness when 
we do it. 

Dr. Bernstrom of Stockholm, Sweden, said 
to me a few years ago that when we made as 
good butter as they did in Sweden we could 
crowd them out of the English market. I 
asked him what was the lowest price they re- 
ceived in the English market for their butter 
and he said twenty-five cents per pound. The 
Elgin market was at that time eighteen cents. 



A TALK WITH CREAMERY EMPLOYES. 255 

Here was a margin of seven cents between the 
best Elgin and Swedish butter in England. I 
advise all who possibly can to take a course in 
some of our dairy schools. It will pay you. 
And do not go with the idea that there are only 
one or two points that you need information 
upon. I have known men with that idea to be 
very much surprised with the combined infor- 
mation they came in contact with. It is not 
alone the knowledge of the instructors, but in 
addition you get what a skillful teacher can 
draw out of the class; and a class of men 
some of whom have had several years' experi- 
ence contains a remarkable fund of informa- 
tion. 

A majority of the butter-makers of the future 
will have had some experience in dairy-school 
work. As a pointer here I wish to state a fact: 
A large per cent of the students at the 1894 
Pennsylvania Dairy School in creamery class 
had positions engaged before attending the 
creamery course and they were secured in 
many cases with the understanding that a 
course should be taken in the dairy school. 
This was a part of the contract. I wish to talk 
on one point here that perhaps should have 
been treated elsewhere. That is the change 
that is coming upon us, caused by the improved 
methods of holding butter in the cold-storage 
warehouses. This is sure to increase the de- 



256 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

maiid for butter when the price is low. I have 
heard butter-makers say they made butter to 
sell, not to hold. This is foolish talk, as the 
time is near at hand when summer butter to 
sell will need to be made so that it will hold 
well. The fine qualities of butter are not sac- 
rificed when it is made to hold. We add to the 
value of the butter when we make it so it will 
hold well. 



APPENDIX, 



AN ACID TEST OF CREAM. 

EXTRACTS FROM ILLINOIS EXPERIMENT STATION "BULLE- 
TIN NO. 32," BY E. H. FARRINGTON, M. S. 

The sourness of cream is one of the things considered by- 
many dairymen in making butter. They may not agree on 
the amount of acidity that cream should have when it is 
ready for churning, but many base their judgment on the 
taste or appearance of the cream. 

The first record of a measurement of the acidity of cream 
before churning, so far as known to the writer, was reported 
in 1887 by John Sebelein, in "Versuchs-Stationen," XXXIV, 
p. 94. He used an alkaline liquid of known strength (one- 
tenth normal) and by adding a few drops of a liquid indicator, 
phenolphtalein, to a measured quantity of cream (50 c. c, or 
about one- tenth of a pint,) the amount of acid in the cream 
was estimated by measuring the quantity of the alkaline 
liquid that it was necessary to add to the 50 c. c. of cream in 
order to produce a pink color in the cream tested. The in- 
dicator, phenolphtalein, has the property of causing a pink 
color in some alkaline liquids, but does not change the color 
of acid solutions. This gives a means of measuring the 
amount of acid in milk or cream by noting the quantity of an 
alkaline liquid of known strength that will produce this pink 
color in a measured amount of cream. The strength of the 
alkaline liquid and the amount of cream taken for each test 
are constant, known quantities, always the same in compara- 
tive trials of different lots of cream. The amount of acid in 
the measured quantity of cream is unknown until, by testing 
it, it is observed how much of the standard alkaline liquid it 
17 (257) 



258 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 

is necessary to use to produce tlie pink color. A one- tenth 
normal solution of an alkali is of a definite strength under- 
stood by chemists. The alkali may be caustic soda, potash, 
lime, or baryta. All these are efficient and results will be 
comparable if a one-ten th normal solution of any one of them 
is used. 

In the fall of 1889 this method of testing the acidity of 
cream was used by Dr. Manns at the creamery of Gurler 
Bros., De Kalb, 111., and also in churnings of cream which 
he made at this station. He found that when cream was 
churned at a temperature of 58 to 62 deg. Fah. too much acid 
in the cream injured the quality of the butter, and too sweet 
cream churned at this temperature caused a loss of butter in 
the buttermilk. The butter was not all churned out unless 
the cream was sufficiently soured. The butter was of poor 
quality if the cream was too sour. These trials indicated 
that, so far as the acidity of the cream had an influence on 
the flavor of the butter and on the thoroughness of the 
churning at 58 to 62 deg., the best results were obtained 
when the acidity of 50 c. c. of cream was neutralized by about 
40 c. c. of one-tenth normal alkali. This work was published 
in "Bulletin No. 9'' of this station May, 1890. The "per cent 
of acidity" as given in that bulletin can be converted into c. 
c. of one-tenth normal alkali by multiplying the "per cent of 
acidity" by 5,000 and dividing by 87. 

In following up this line of work the writer has developed 
a method of 

Cream testing with alk aline tablets.— A formula has 
been worked out by which a definite amount of solid alkali can 
be made into a tablet containing both the alkali and the indi- 
cator necessary for testing the acidity of cream or milk. 

Each tablet contains a definite amount of alkali which 
will neutralize as much acid as 4.66 c. c. of a one- tenth nor- 
mal alkaline liquid. A test of a number of the tablets showed 
them to be very unifor m in the amount of alkali contained in 
each tablet. The extreme difference amounted to three- 
tenths of one c. 0. of the one-tenth normal liquid. One thou- 
sand tablets weigh about twelve ounces. Each tablet is 
about three-eighths of an inch in diameter and one-eighth 



AN ACID TEST OF CREAM. 259 

inch thick, and they can be used instead of the one-tenth 
normal alkaline liquid and the liquid indicator already men- 
tioned. The tablets can be used for testing the acidity of 
cream in the following way: 

Dissolving the tablets.— A 50 c. c. glass cylinder, grad- 
uated, and on a foot, is found to be a convenient piece of ap- 
paratus to use in preparing the solution of the tablets. It is 
made of stout glass, not easily broken, and can be obtained 
of any dealer in chemical apparatus. Put five tablets into 
this cylinder, add hot or cold soft water until the cylinder is 
filled up to the 50 mark, then cork the cylinder and shake 
frequently until the tablets all disapj^ear in solution. If the 
solution of the tablets is hastened by shaking the bottle or 
stirring the liquid it should be done in such a way as to pre- 
vent any loss. As they do not dissolve immediately they 
should be put to soak about one-half hour before the cream 
is to be tested. The strength of the solution does not change 
perceptibly by standing four or five hours, but there is some 
change in a tablet solution which is a day or more old. The 
solid tablet will not change, and the only precaution neces- 
sary is to use a fresh solution of the tablets in testing the 
acidity of the cream. Excepting the flocculent residue or 
settlings, which will not dissolve in water, the tablets should 
all disappear in the solution before it is added to the cream 
to be tested. When the solution is complete the cylinder 
contains a- reddish-colored liquid, the alkaline strength of 
which is indicated by the number of tablets which were put 
into the cylinder. 

Testing the cream.— The cream to be tested should be 
thoroughly mixed. Then measure 25 c. c. of the cream into 
a glass tumbler or a cup. If the cream is very thick 25 c. c. 
of clean rain water may be mixed with it in the dish. The 
sourness of the cream is then ascertained by adding the red- 
dish-colored solution of the tablets to this measured quantity 
of cream until it retains a pinkish color. When the two 
liquids, cream and tablet solution, are thoroughly mixed the 
pink color does not remain permanent until the acid of the 
cream is completely neutralized by the alkali of the tablets. 
An excess of the alkali causes the color to increase. The 



260 AMERICAN DAIRYING, 

acidity of the cream is measured by adding just enough of 
the alkali to produce a permanent change of color from 
white to pink. No further addition of the alkali is necessary, 
as the first change of color indicates the point when the 
acid is all neutralized. A piece of white paper placed under 
the tumbler in which the cream is tested will help to show 
the change of color. It will be found to be more accurate to 
adopt as the end of the test the point when the first change 
of color appears and the cream is no longer white, rather 
than to try to get a certain shade of pink color every time. 

The amount of alkali required to produce this change of 
color shows the sourness of the cream as indicated by this 
test. A change of color may be produced in 25 c. c. of sweet 
cream by a solution of one or two tablets. As the sourness 
of the cream increases 25 c. c. of it may require a solution of 
three, four or five tablets to change the color. 

The indications are that a cream which requires a solution 
of six or more tablets to change its color is too sour. The 
butter made from such cream will be off flavor. The only 
general direction that can now be given as applicable to 
nearly all cream is to churn it when 25 c. c. of the thoroughly 
mixed cream is not colored by a solution of four tablets but 
is decidedly colored by a solution of five tablets. 

Some dairymen may prefer to churn a less acid cream and 
adopt the sourness of cream which will give a color with a 
solution of three tablets. 

Comparative trials made by each person of the acidity of 
the cream and the flavor of the butter made from it will be a 
satisfactory guide to follow. 

This test will show the sourness of each lot of cream so 
that a uniformity of acidity can be had in each churning. 
How much acidity each lot of cream should have, or whether 
cream should be churned sweet or sour, may be a matter of 
opinion with the butter-maker. This test serves as an aid 
to show him when the cream is of the sweetness or sourness 
which he prefers. It will also show when the cream ought 
to be churned in order to prevent it from spoiling the butter 
by ripening too far and becoming too sour for the best re- 
sults. 



AN ACID TEST OF CREAM. 261 

The complete outfit, including- 1,000 tablets, one 25 c. c. 
pipette and one 50 c. c. measuring- cylinder, costs $3 de- 
livered. One thousand tablets ought to make 250 tests of 
cream. 



My firm have used the alkaline tablets in our 
De Kalb creamery and think them as reliable 
and more convenient to use than the Manns 
acid test. I think it will pay all butter-makers 
to have these tablets and use them as often as 
is necessary to keep themselves right. They 
will be a greater help to a person that has had 
little experience than to one that has had 
much. They will help to educate a person's 
taste to the right acidity. 



INDEX 



PART L— PRIVATE DAIRYING. 



Abortion, 49, 50. 

Age to breed, 23. ,, . 

Autumn, why cows should freshen In, 

46. 
Average cow, the, 9. 

Babcock tester, the, 20. 
Babcock test, value of the, 14. 
Baker's, Mr. W. D., ration for cows, 54. 
Barrel dairy churn (illustration), 96. 
Barrels, return milk in. 64. 
BoUert's, Mr. Herman, ration for cows, 

56. 
Bourquln's, Mr. A., ration for dairy 

cows, 53. 
Box churn, square (illustration), 97. 
Boynton's, Mr. W. J., ration for cows, 

53. 
Bradley's patent pail packages (illus- 
tration), 111. 
Brand for butter, have a, 113. 
Breeding cows, Intelligent, 22. 
Breed to select, what, 24. ^ ^ , 

Busick's, Mrs. Kate M., ration for dairy 

cows. 53. 
Butter color, 99. 

average yield of, par cow, 9. 

from silage, 35. 

froui the test, estimating, lb. 

have a brand for, 113. 

individuality of, 113. 

ladle, Anderson's (Illustration), 106, 

loss on poor, 110. 

marketing dairy, 110. 

once working, 104. 

packages, kind of, 107. 

packer (illustration), 106. 

profit on fine, 110. 

putting up for market, 108. 

salting, working and packing, 103. 

shipping box (illustration). 108. 

should not be touched by hands. 

102. 
spades (illustration), 106. 
twice working. 105. 
washing the, 100. 
Butter-worker, the Eureka (illustra- 
tion), 104. 
the Mason (illustration), 105. 
lever, (illustration), 107. 
Buttermilk, value of as food, 141. 

Vermont Station on skim-milk and, 
142. 
Buying cows, 24, 26. 



Caldwell's, Prof. W. H., views on 

breeds, 25. 

Calves, dehorning, 58. ^ ,„„ 

Dr. Goessman on skim-milk for, 137. 

Iowa Station on skim-milk for, 140. 

Mississippi Station on skim-milk 

for, 140. 
Pennsylvania Station on skim-milk 

for, 140. 
Prof. Plumb on skim-milk for, 138. 
remedy for scours in, 135. 
rules for feeding, 135. 
should be kept dry, 136. 
skim-milk for, 133. 
Calving time, the, 44. 
Care pays well, 114. 
Centrifugal separators, 88. 
Chaff, wet, for weighting the silo, 39. 
Chum and worker, washing the, 63. 
barrel, dairy (illustration), 96. 
Davis swing (illustration), 101. 
rectangular (illustration), 99. 
room, temperature of, 99. 
square box (illustration), 97. 
straining cream into the. 98. 
test for cows, 12. 
Churning at low temperature, 101. 
different temperatures for, 96. 
Cleanliness in milking, 66. 
Clover, when to cut, 31. 
Commission houses, 112. 
Confine the cows, how to, 49. • 
Cooke, Prof., on feeding pigs, 120. 
Cooley creamer, the (illustration), 85. 
Cooling, repeated, recommended, 83. 
Corn and skim-milk compared, 122. 
cost of growth of pigs with, 117. 
for silage, when to cut. 33. 
planting for silage, 35. 
Cottrell's, Mr. M. H., ration for cows, 

54. 
Cow beef, cost of, 27. . , * ^ 

Cows, a New York experiment in xcea- 
ing, 45. 
breeding, 22. 
buying, 24. 
churn test for, 12. 
comparative profitableness oi, la. 
cost of feeding, 10, 27. 
cream test for. 12. 
disposing of unprofitable, 27. 
Dr. Pierson on feeding, 45. 
drying off, 24. 
how to confine the, 49. 



(263) 



264 



INDEX. 



Cows, language of the, 32. 

need special care, 69. 

one better than two, 21. 

purchasing by Illinois Experiment 
Station, 25. 

rations for dairy, 52. 

standard for, 22. 

test before buying, 26. 

testing the, 15. 

the average. 9. 

tying, 49. 

warm the water for, 39. 

watering in the stable. 40. 
Cream and fat, percentages of, 13. 

deep cold-setting, 95. 

eflfect of heating and cooling on, 83. 

holding, 94. 

ripening and churning, 94. 

separator, 95. 

straining into the churn, 98. 

test for cows, 12. 

test unreliable, 13. 
Creamery building, farm (illustration), 

Creaming promoted by repeated cool- 
ing, 83. 

Dairy butter, marketing, 110. 
farm, profits from, 115. 
herd, the, 9. 
utensils, care of, 62. 

Deep-setting can (Illustration), 84. 

Dehorning, 57. 

Delaware Station on separators, 88. 

Difference in milkers, 69. 

Disturbances, effect of, 68. 

Dog power, churning with (illustra- 
tion), 100. 

Doncourt's, Mr, A., ration for cows, 
55. 

Drew's, Mr. L. S., ration for cows, 55. 

Drying off cows, 24. 

Ergot, abortion from, 50. 

Estimating butter from test, 16. 

Eureka butter-worker, the (illustra- 
tion), 104. 

Exposure, effects of. 58. 

Farm creamery building (Illustration), 

Farm skim-milk, 92. 

Farmer's work, average in feeding pigs, 

Fat and cream, percentages of, 13. 
Feed and management, 30. 
Feeding calves, rules for, 135. 
Feeding cows, a New York experiment 
in, 45. 

cost of, 10. 

Dr. Pierson on, 45. 

Individual cows, cost of, 27. ' 

Kansas experimental work in, 46. 

old and young animals, 125. 
Feeding problem, a, 36. 
Fishers, Mr. L. C. ration for cows, 55. 
Flannel strainers, 81. 
Foundation herd of cows, 9. 
Gabrilson's, Mr. C. L., ration for dairy 

cows, 53. 
Goodrich's, Mr. C. P., ration for cows, 

55. 
Gould's, Mr. John, ration for cows, 55. 



Goss', Mr. J. W., ration for dairy cows, 

53. 
Hands should be kept out of butter. 

Hay, when to make. 31. 

Heating and cooling, effect of on 

cream, 83. 
Henry's, Mr. E, S., ration for dairy 

cows, 53. 
Henry, Prof., on feeding pigs, 124. 
Herd, how to improve the, 10. 
Holding cream, 94. 
How to milk, 73. 
Hyatt's, Mr. A. X., ration for cows, 

55. 
Illinois Station on feeding pigs, 119. 
Improving the herd, 10. 
Indiana Experiment Station on effects 

of exposure, 58. 
Individuality, butter has, 114. 
Kicking, cause for, 67. 
Ladle, handling with the, 102. 
Lever butter-worker (illustration), 107. 
McCllntock's, Mr. John, ration for 

cows, 55. 
Maine experiment work in skimming, 

88. 
Management and feed, 30. 
Market, putting up butter for, 108. 
Marketing dairy butter. 110. 
Mason butter-worker, the (illustra- 
tion), 10.5. 
Milk, average of per cow, 20. 
from cow to cream vat, 81. 
how to, 73. 
morning's and night's, compared, 

78. 
pall, tin (illustration), 81, 82. 
quality of, first and last compared, 

76. 
return, in barrels. 64. 
room, temperature of. 83. 
skimming from Cooley cans (illus- 
tration). 86. 
test, seeking a, 49. 
variation in, from day to day, 77. 
when should be skimmed. 84. 
Milkers, difference in, 69. 
Milking, 65. 

fast and slow, compared, 75, 
for prizes, 71. 
habit, establish the, 23. 
one teat at a time, 75. 
tests, frequency of, 76. 
Wisconsin Experiment Station on, 
74. 
Minnesota experiment work in skim- 
ming, 88. 
Mississippi Station on milk, 79. 
Morning's and night's milk compared, 

78. 
New York experiment work in skim- 
ming, 88. 
Nutrients in twenty-four rations, 56. 
Oats, can we afford to feed, 43. 
Once working. 104. 
Packages, butter, 107. 

Bradley's patent pail (illustration), 

111. 
glass butter (Illustration). 112. 



INDEX. 



265 



Packing, Baiting, and working butter, 

103. 
Pierson, Dr., on cow-feeding, 45. 
Pigs, results from feeding, 117. 
Plumb. Prof. C. S., on effects of ex- 
posure, 60. 
Pork, cost of, from corn, 117. 
Prizes, milking for, 71. 
Profits from dairy farm, 115. 
Quality of first and last milk com- 
pared, 76. 
Rations for dairy cows, 52. 

table of nutrients in twenty-four, 
56. 
Regularity in milking, 66. 
Rejected food, 44. 
Return milk in barrels, 64. 
Ripening and churning, 94. 
Robertsons, Mr. R., ration for cows, 

56. 
Salting, working, and packing butter, 

103. 
Samples, care of the, 16. 
Scientists, credit to the, 50. 
Scours in calves, remedy for, 135. 
Separator cream, 95. 

the "Baby." De Laval (illustra- 
tion), 90. 

the "Baby," power (illustration), 
89. 

centrifugal, 88. 

milk good, 141. 
Shipping-box for butter (Illustration), 

108. 
Silage, amount of, to feed, 43. 

butter, 35. 

planting corn for, 35. 

suiface, exposure of, 34. 

when to cut com for, 34. 
Silo, filling the, 38. 

how fast to fill, 38. 

weighting, 39. 
Sisson's, Mr. Geo. W., ration for cows, 

54, 
Skimmer, the cone (illustration), 87. 
Skimming, carfe in. 87. 

experimental work in, 87. 

from theCooley cans (Illustration), 
86. 

milk, 84. 
Skim-milk, 116. 

age, effect of in feeding. 128. 

and buttermilk compared, 143. 

and corn compared, 122. 

farm, 92. 



Skim-mi.'k feeding before and after 
weaning, 125. 

for calves, 133. 

for old and young animals. 125. 

Goodrich's, Mr. C. P., experience 
with feeding, 132. 

Gov. Hoard's experience with feed- 
ing, 131. 

Massachusetts Station on, 131, 144. 

New Hampshire experimental work 
in feeding, 127. 

valueof, 11, 116. 

Whitcher's, Prof., conclusions on 
value of, 130. 

with grain, table showing value 
of, 129. 
Smiths & Powell's ration for cows, 54 
Sow with pigs, feeding, 121. 
Special care for cows, 69. 
Spoon ladle, the (illustration), 106. 
Stables, importance of warm, 48. 
Strainers, SI. 
Submerged plan, the, 85. 
Suggestions about feeding, 133. 
Temperature, churning at low, 101. 

for churning, different, 96. 

of chum room, 99. 

of milk room, 83. 
Testing, how done, 16. 

the cows, 15, 17. 
Tin milk pail (illustration), 81. 
Tuberculosis, about, 41. 
Tubes, milking with, 76. 
Utensils, care of dairy, 62. 
Variation in milk from same cow, 77 
Virginia Station on feeding pigs, 119. 
Warming water for cows, 39. 
Warm stables, Importance of, 48. 
Washing the butter, 100. 
Watering cows, 39. 
Wilcox's, Mr. Munzo, ration for cows, 

54. 
Winslow's, Mr. C. M., ration for cows, 

55. 
Wire cloth strainer, Curtis' (Illustra- 
tion), 82. 
Wisconsin Experiment Station's ra- 
tions for dairy cows, 52. 

work in skimming, 88. 

on feeding pigs, 118, 123. 
Wooden scoop for handling butter. 102. 
Wooden utensils, preparing, 63. 
Worker and churn, washing the, 63. 
Working, salting and packing butter, 
103. 



PART II.— CREAMERY MANAGEMENT. 



Absorbing bad odors, 156. 

Acidity, look out for, 194. 

Acid test of cream, an, 257. 

Aerating milk, 147. 

Agitating milk when cooling 148. 

Alkaline tablets, testing with, 259. 

Alpha tempering vat (illustration), 171, 

172, 173. 
Babcock test, the. 246. 
at World's Fair, 166. 



Babcook test as a basis of payment for 

cream, 247. 
applies to all milk. 160. 
diflaculties in the, how to overcome, 

163. 
diflaculties, reasons for, 163. 
diflaculty from "black stuff," 162. 
gives satisfactory results, 160. 
not automatic, 160. 
points to be watched, 162. 



266 



INBEX. 



Babcock test. Russian, 246, 247. 

tested and proved. 166. 

to be looked after. 17i. 
Bad milk to be returned. 149. 
Bair's cream cooler (Illustration), 176. 
Belts to be looked after, 225. 
Bloody milk, effect of, 153. 
Boiler, the, 222. 

and engine, capacity of, 234. 
Brushes used in cleaning, 221. 
Buildings and utensils, care of, 217. 
Butter accumulator (illustration), 181, 
Butter at World's Fair, judging, 190. 

care In packing, 211. 

coloring with the salt, 198. 

Injured by cheese, 205. 

keeping quality of unwashed, 190. 

marketing, 212. 

mottled, cause of, 182. 

neat packages for, 211. 

packages, care of, 210. 

removing curd from, 200. 

salting, working and marketing, 204. 

tubs, 210. 

washing, 195. 

worker, cleaning the, 220. 

worker, Vermont power (Illustra- 
tion), 207. 
Buttermilk, test of, for fat, 199. 
Calves, sklm-milk for, 215. 
Cans and tanks for gathering cream, 

242. 
Cedar-box creamery churn (Illustra- 
tion), 197. 
Channel vat, 170. 
Cheese, butter injured by, 205. 
Churns. 198. 

care of, 217, 219. 

cedar box, creamery (Illustration), 
197. 

cooling the, 184. 

Curtis' Improved factory (Illustra- 
tion), 196. 

Davis' swing (Illustration), 191. 

Dlsbrow's combined (Illustration), 
193, 193. 

room, temperature of, 188. 

salting, 206. 

temperature of the, 186. 
Churning at low temperature, 187. 

same day gathered, 243. 

temperature during, 198. 
Color added to the salt, 198. 

have a standard of, 202. 
Com bined churn and worker, Dlsbrow's 

(Illustration), 192, 193. 
Composite plan of testing, 157. 

samples, taking, 156. 
Conveying milk to creamery, 150. 
Cooler, Gurler's circulating (Illustra- 
tion), 185. 
Cooling cream quickly, 176. 
Cooling milk, 147. 
Cooling milk quickly, 171. 
Covers for milk wagons, 150. 
Cream cooler, Danish Weston (Illustra- 
tion), 175. 
Cream, cooling, quickly, 176. 

gauge, the, 239. 

how to remove from bowl, 177. 



' Cream, look out for the, 194. 

Pasteurized, 202. 

per cent of fat in, 200. 

rich, requires low temperature, 187. 

ripening and churning, 182. 

strainer (illustration), 200. 

temperature at which to hold, 184. 

temperature to ripen, 183. 
Creamery, cost of, 231. 

employes, a talk with, 249. 

location of the, 226. 

plan for a, 228, 229. 

suggestions about building a, 226. 
Curd from butter, removing, 200. 
Curtis' improved factory churn (Illus- 
tration), 196. 
Dairy school work, 178. 
Danish Weston cream cooler (Illustra- 
tion), 175. 
Davis' swing churn (Illustration), 191. 
Decision needed, 155. 
Detecting bad odors, 156. 
Dlsbrow's com blned churn and worker 

(Illustration), 192, 193. 
Drainage, importance of, 230. 
Drain, the creamery. 220. 
Driver's case (illustration), 241. 

measuring pail (illustration), 240. 
Employes, a talk with creamery, 249. 
Engine, care of the, 224. 
European example. 203. 
Expert at the weigh can, 155. 
Farrlngton's, Dr., bulletin on "An Acid 

Test of Cream," 257. 
Fat, average of In sklm-mllk, 180. 

per cent of In buttermilk. 200. 

per cent of In cream, 200. 
Flavor, effect of washing on, 190. 
Floating glass thermometer (illustra- 
tion), 201. 
Floor of creamery, 227. 
Gas engine, the Charter (Illustration), 

232. 
Gathered-cream and whole- milk butter 
compared, 243. 

and whole milk, comparative value 
of, 239. 

work, 238. 
Gurler's circulating cooler (illustra- 
tion), 185. 
Heat, danger from too much, 158. 
Heating, effect of on separating, 170. 
Heating milk suddenly, 169. 
Horizontal engine (Illustration), 233. 
Ice, the use of, 243. 
Iowa can, the (Illustration), 148. 
Jacketed cream-carrier, Haney's (Illus- 
tration), 243. 
Key City King (Illustration), 187. 
Low temperature, advantages of, 189, 

197. 
Marketing, salting and working, 204. 

butter, 212. 
Milk absorbing odors, 151. 

aerating, 147. 

agitating when cooling, 148. 

bad, should be returned, 149. 

care of, by patrons, 147. 

conveying to creamery, 150. 

ooollng, 147. 



INDEX. 



267 



Milk, effect of bloody, 153. 

off flavor when received, 195. 

quick coolinfj of, 171. 

receiving at tlie creamery, 154. 

should not be mixed, 149. 

spoiled by bad surroundings, 151. 

sudden heating, 169. 

tempering and separating, 169. 
'Milk thief' (illustration). 157. 
Milk wagons, covers for, 150. 
Mixed, milk should not be. 149. 
Mop heads (illustration), 223. 
Mottled butter, cause of, 182, 
Mutual interests of patrons and pro- 
prietors, 216. 
Neat packages for butter, 211. 
Neglect of boilers, results of, 224. 
Odors absorbed by milk, 151. 

salt absorbs, 204. 
Oil-test churn, Curtis' patent (Illustra- 
tion), 245. 
Packages, care of, 210. 
Packing, care in, 211. 
Pasteurized cream, 202. 
Patrons and proprietors considered, 
216. 

tact required In dealing with, 154. 
Pennsylvania Dairy School's tests, 199. 
Perforated tin cream strainer (illustra- 
tion), 200. 
Pioneer work, gathering cream is, 241. 
Plan, criticisms of, 230. 

for a creamery, 228, 229. 
Power required, tests of, 179. 
Preserving samples, 158. 
Quick cooling of milk, 171. 
Receiving milk at the creamery, 154. 
Refrigerator for tank, Curtis' patent 

(illustration), 242. 
Ripening and churning cream, 182. 
Ripening cream, use of a "starter" in, 

183. 
Rotary force pump, improved (illustra- 
tion), 235. 
Russian separator. Sharpies (illustra- 
tion), 174. 
Safety valve to be looked after daily, 

224. 
Salt absorbs odors, 204. 

estimating for, 207. 

how much, 206. 

sift the, 206. 
Salting churn, 206. 
Salting, working and marketing, 204. 
Samples, preserving, 158. 

taking composite, 156. 
Sample tube, Scovell's (illustration), 

157. 
Scalding skim-mllk, 215. 
School work, dairy, 178. 
Scientists, Babcock test satisfactory 

to, 160. 
Scovell's sample tube (illustration), 

157. 
Separator, capacity of, 177. 
care of the, 171. 



Separators, difference in, 178. 
Sharpies Russian separator (illustra- 
tion), 174. 
Skim-mllk at creamery, care of, 214. 

average of fat in, 180. 

clean vats for, 214. 

for calves, 215. 

scalding, 215. 

sweet and sour, 214. 

Vermont experiment with, 214. 
Skimming, clean vs. close, 174. 
Skim stations, 235. 
Spring wagons necessary, 150. 
Standard of color, have a, 202. 
Star cooler and aerator (illustration), 

147. 
"Starter," a, in ripening cream, 183. 
Station work, value of, 180. 
Strainer, cream vat (illustration), 239. 

dipper (illustration), 189. 

perforated tin cream (illustration), 
200. 
Smoke-stack, construction of the, 234. 
Submerged can, 244. 
Suggestions to those building cream- 
eries, 226. 
Surplus and shortage of gathered 

cream, 238. 
Temperature, advantages of low, 189, 
197. 

at which to hold cream, 184. 

churning at low, 187. 

during churning, 198. 

of the chum, 186. 

of the churn room, 188. 

to ripen cream, 183. 
Tempering and separating, 169. 
Testing milk, composite plan of, 157. 
Test plan for gathered cream, 241. 
Tests at World's Fair, figures from the, 

167. 
Tests of power required, 179. 
Thermometer, floating glass (Illustra- 
tion), 201. 

have a tested, 201. 
Tinware, care of the, 217. 
Trap for the sewer, 228. 
Unnecessary losses, 150. 
Unwashed butter, keeping quality of, 

190. 
Vat for cans, 148. 

the cream, 227. 

leaky, 222. 

tempering, 231. 
Wallace's, Mr. Henry C, experiments, 

180. 
Washing butter, 195. 

effect of on flavor, 190. 
Wash sink, 218. 
Water heater. Barber's pipe, noiseless, 

219. 
Weigh can (illustration), 155 

the man at the, 158. 
Working, how much? 209. 

once or twice, 208. 
1 Working, salting and marketing, 204. 



Dairy, Creamery 

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Apparatus 



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The 



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